Buzzards Migrating
The buzzards (turkey vultures) are migrating northward today! We saw a flock of a few hundred(?) working their way north as I waxed the truck this morning.
Effortless Travel
They have an interesting way of travelling.
They find a thermal and circle within it, allowing the upward-travelling air to simply take them up with it. Once they’ve gained sufficient altitude, they glide generally north, slowly losing altitude as they go.
Then they find another thermal and repeat the process, over and over.
They almost never flap their wings.
This is exactly the same process sailplane (glider) pilots use to cover hundreds of miles in a single flight.
Buzzards resting during northern migration
As the sun gets lower in the West and sets, warming of the earth ceases and the thermals die out. The buzzards just find an old tree and rent a branch for the night! In Arizona, we saw a couple dozen spending the night in one tree.
Sailplane pilots do the same thing, preferring motels.
We first observed this interesting process while Workamping at Imperial National Wildlife Refuge, north of Yuma, AZ, about ten years ago.
We plan to follow the buzzard’s lead and head north ourselves. We plan to leave Mission April 1. We’ll spend a few days with friends and arrive home about April 6.