The cleanup crew

Turkey vultures (TVs) are one of the most under-appreciated birds of the Americas, maybe even here in Sisters. On summer nights they quietly sleep in the big cottonwoods along Three Creek Road near the Peterson Ridge trailhead. During the day they're undertakers. They don't bother anyone, and, if you're like me and enjoy a good air show, the TVs put one on every night when they come back to their roost.

TVs have no equal when it comes to airmanship and soaring. (Sure, white pelicans and eagles are pretty good, but I'd have to vote for TVs at being better at it.) When it comes to landing, however, TVs are a wreck looking for a place to happen. Every night, about sundown, they come sailing in to roost in those big cottonwoods, and every night they crash into one another. Fun to watch.

In the morning, you'll see them raising their wings to greet the rising sun. This behavior has a snazzy name: "horaltic pose," an attitude that's vital to getting the birds airborne. The sun warms their wings, which brings internal organs up to operating temperature.

Once airborne, they play "follow the leader," watching the first one that catches an early-morning thermal (rising column of air), and within a few moments they have become a "kettle," and soar off to their foraging sites.

Unlike the California condor, which uses remarkable eyesight to locate dead things for breakfast, TVs depend on their astounding ability to smell gases wafting in the breeze from dead, road-killed deer and other tasty treats.

There is no other bird that can locate food in this manner, which is what makes TVs so valuable. Who hasn't grimaced at that sudden odor of a dead deer sailing through your car when driving between Sisters and the other places; it's enough to gag a maggot! The ODOT crews who haul those road-kills out into the forest have to be thanked profusely. Not only do they remove the unsightly mess and stink from the roadside, but they leave the carcasses for the TVs, who not only consume rotting corpses, but eliminate disease while doing so.

New World TVs are not related to those from the Old World. Ours are a wonderful example of "divergent evolution."

Divergent evolution is the accumulation of differences between groups which can lead to the formation of new species. That's what drives members of the biological community nuts when it comes to TVs; some claim they are in the stork family and took to doing things a little differently, while the Old World "buzzards" are from a long line of raptors.

The DNA sequence supports this hypothesis, as do the physical characteristics of both groups. Please, refrain from calling our TVs "buzzards." That buzzard business arrived with the Puritans; they saw TVs soaring about, thought they were hawks - like the so-called buzzards they left behind - and hung on our TVs.

The common name turkey vulture has to do with the red (only in adults kids are black) naked head, brown feathers, turkey-like appearance and big feet.

Sisters isn't the only neat little town that has TVs staying within the city limits; every year, on March 15 - ever since 1955 - the city of Hinckley, Ohio, throws a big party and contest when the buzzards return to "Buzzards' Roost" at the Hinckley Reservation, part of the parks department.

One more thing, and then you can go out and mow the lawn or wash the dishes: researchers in Canada and Latin America are conducting an international TV study. They are placing colored and numbered wing-tags on hundreds of TV's wings. Please watch for them; if you see one, record the color, number, date and location. Go to your computer, bring up the USGS Bird Banding Laboratory and follow the reporting links. Thanks.