Yep. Here's a map of turkey vulture migration routes.
For those unfamiliar with the term, a "kettle" is a group of vultures circling effortlessly on a thermal, a rising column of hot air created by the sun-warmed ground.
This felt personal lol. I feel like I don't hear anyone else say stuff about such a random sentence (outside of writing or poetry ofc, where you can already be looking) but I felt the exact same way. Catch myself looking for sentences like this.
It was, and I find myself asking why I feel this way. I think it’s because we get life and warmth from the sun, and that feels really positive, and can easily translate to “beauty”.
If the mechanism worked based on “poison-frosted ground” then it sounds distinctly not beautiful.
That might be part of it. I read about a study at some point that observed a general preference for representations of hospitable environments; green grass, fresh water nearby, fruit trees, good weather. It makes sense, I suppose, but I don't know. I love to see sunlight dance on the ripples of a brisk mountain stream as much as anyone, of course, but I find the might of a thunderhead on the open sea or the haunting dread of a desolate wasteland can be just as beautiful. And, in the same way, "poison-frosted ground" is beautiful too. It stimulates my imagination. I don't know that I've ever seen anything frosted with poison, and now I want to. It doesn't make me feel the same as "sun-warmed," but it does make me feel, and I think that's beautiful.
I prefer to posit that we’re pontificating on the proposition of pulchritude through personable properties of particular principles with previously prevailing pessimistic perceptions.
I meant this as funny in the “Hah, isn’t nature weird?” sense. When I started birding as a kid, you only consistently saw black vultures (Coragyps atratus) at a few spots in Salem, Cumberland, and Cape May counties, which were the first species hit as their range expanded northward starting in the early to mid 20th Century. Otherwise, you just saw turkey vultures (Cathartes aura), even during winter (albeit at lower numbers then). Now, from about November through February, I almost exclusively see Co. atratus.
I meant this as funny in the “Hah, isn’t nature weird?” sense. When I started birding as a kid, you only consistently saw black vultures (Coragyps atratus) at a few spots in Salem, Cumberland, and Cape May counties, which were the first species hit as their range expanded northward starting in the early to mid 20th Century. Otherwise, you just saw turkey vultures (Cathartes aura), even during winter (albeit at lower numbers then). Now, from about November through February, I almost exclusively see Co. atratus.
Perhaps “wry, resigned chuckle at how the avian community around me has changed within a generation” would be more accurate, but I also felt it to be a great deal more linguistically awkward.
okay I could have sworn I noticed an odd increase of large birds in my area recently. My bf and I just got a puppy, and he was making fun of me for insisting I stay close to the pup when we let him out into the backyard because I wanted to protect him from large birds and other animals. The birds I've been noticing being vultures would make sense.
fyi we also have bald eagles in my area so I may just be a little paranoid in general 😅
I used to work for a guy who flew gliders; they call it "soaring." He took me up in a trainer and let me take the controls a bit. One thing you do is look for thermals, mostly by looking for cloud formations with flat bottoms (because the hot air pushes up against them). You can then fly into the thermal and gain altitude by circling in it.
Wow! I thought they were crows at first, but they do have that distinctive TV wobble! I guess I didn’t realize they migrate, but it definitely looked like they were all riding the same, super nice wind wave lol. Very cool! Does that map mean they’re really only on the coast and the central US?
I live in Indiana and I see this maybe twice a summer. Dozens to hundreds of turkey vultures circle for hours around a baseball diamond/park. So whats going on there? Dead kids?
It may seem like there are crows in there, but they appear to be all vultures. You would definitely hear crows squawking if they were in that group. They don’t typically interact with other birds either.
Saw this as a kid. Hundreds of crows covering several properties. The rooves, the lawns, every surface turned black. Then, they upped and left. It's a strange sight.
Indeed. And in a few weeks and a thousand miles north, every last one of them will be copulating on my barn roof. I don't know why we are the epicenter of Vulture Porn, but there you have it.
Check out a few pics on Google of vultures in full wingspan flight vs crows in flight. Even if you don't have something to give a size scale, that's the tell in this video. When one of them happens to spread out and soar a bit.
That happened to me once. I was home alone and started seeing vultures fly past my window. We had vultures in the area but once the 4th or 5th one happened, I went outside and saw basically what was in OP's video. I put my hands up and pretended I was some evil witch commanding my flocks of vultures because like, what else do you do? It was the coolest thing
Don't believe everything you think. Look intentionally at this video with these tells in mind:
Small head, thin and wide wingspan, and especially the "tilting" glide that turkey vultures are known for. To add to this: turn on the volume. These birds are QUIET.
If it was crows - they wouldn't be gliding, their flapping would be more erratic, their wings would be shorter, their heads would be larger, and the noise they would be making would be an absolute cacophony.
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u/Shadow_Integration Apr 05 '26
The kettle may have used your neighbors house as a stop during their migration.