flyway

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On a recent visit from Chicago, Harald Schmidt had a good morning. Last Sunday, he was on the river at Alcoa Highway and Topside Road.

Harald e-mails, “At one point I could hear some birds making a lot of noise in a nearby tree. While walking closer, I saw this very large bird sitting in the tree. When he saw me he took off and I was only to get one photo.”

In addition to the bald eagle, Harald also got photos of an osprey, red-tailed hawk, turkey vulture and finally a great blue heron.

There was a lot of airborne traffic that morning.

Thanks, Harald.

- Photos by Harald Schmidt

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leftovers

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I view myself lucky.

As part of my job at the nature center, I get to help care for a turkey vulture.

She was hit by a truck in North Carolina and made her way to the American Eagle Foundation in Pigeon Forge for rehab. It took awhile. She eventually recovered from her injuries but had become completely imprinted on her human caregivers. That's where we come into the picture. She was moved to Ijams and we'll care for her the rest of her life.

I've worked with injured owls and hawks for years, but never a turkey vulture. What a personality. The first thing we noticed is that she's far more inquisitive than the other birds. An owl can (and does) sit on a perch for hours watching the world pass but the vulture gets bored. She wants something to explore, something to ponder.

As a rule we feed her dead mice, which she gobbles down quickly. And then she’s bored again. So recently, our wildlife biologist gave her the remains of a turkey carcass. (No gravy. No dressing. No yams. That would have been wasted on her.)

Oh, was she thrilled with the leftovers. Long lost memories stirred inside her knubby little noggin'. She walked around it, looking at it this way and that, picking a morsel from here and a morsel from there. It entertained her for hours.

Now she routinely gets such treats. It's the least we can do.

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true charisma

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Charismatic.

Owls may be wise. Well, none that I have personally known have been all that wise. But vultures? That’s another story.

One look into their inquisitive brown eyes and you know there's a thinking brain inside that scruffy, bald noggin.

One of the perks of working at Ijams Nature Center is the turkey vulture we adopted. She was hit by a dump truck in western North Carolina and went through rehab at the American Eagle Foundation in Pigeon Forge. It took so long for her to heal that she became people friendly. Having lost her wildness and hunting skills, she imprinted on her human caregivers. Oh, she does not think that she's human or anything like that. She knows she's superior. We're her acolytes. She grunts her approval like a queen dowager when we bring her meals. Dead things. You really would not want to know the details.

She came to Ijams over three years ago. We’ll take care of her the rest of her life. But that's a privilege. She's clever and curious and courteous, dare I say, even charismatic. Yes, she has oodles of personality, nothing like an owl.

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