Charisma?
  Despite its almost two-metre wingspan, its amazing ecosystem function and services, and its spectacular soaring ability, it is difficult for some people to refer to turkey vultures as “charismatic megafauna”, but they definitely are. Their wingspan is three-quarters that of golden and bald eagles. Their naked heads are like those of turkeys, which prompted their name, but the function of that nakedness is entirely different. As large avian scavengers, vultures clean up large and small “deads” by ripping through skin or holes in dead animals and eating the material inside. Inside a dead cow or road-killed deer can be very messy and a naked head is a valuable adaptation for avoiding a “bad feather day”. Vultures sometimes feed on road-killed skunks, which may seem gross to us, but is obvious to vultures because they have an amazing sense of smell. In contrast to most other land-birds, turkey vultures can smell well and can locate even lightly buried decaying meat from long distances downwind. We are stretching, perhaps, but even that adds some charisma. 

Living the slow life
   Vultures do not live in the fast lane. In the morning they are content to remain at their community roost, soak up the early morning sun, wait for the cool air to warm up, and then slowly flap to a thermal to catch its lift or use the slightest breeze or uplift from a river valley wall to rise and soar and glide across large parts of the landscape, smelling for dead food and watching afar for signs that other birds or mammals have found some.
Even their nesting is a relaxed affair. Vultures arrive back in the spring at the latitude of Hairy Hill and Elk Point just after the middle of April. The vultures lay their eggs (usually two) in early to mid May, quite late in the spring for a large bird. After 38-40 days of incubation by both parents their eggs hatch in mid-late June. After about two months in the nest the nestlings have grown to adult size and make their first flights, usually in mid-late August or early September. At one nest at which the nestlings first flew about September 9, they were still present near their nest in the early morning of September 29, and the landowners last saw vultures in the vicinity on the following day. Vultures have a late and long nesting season before migrating to southern climates for the winter.

Big, but elusive
   In addition to having a very interesting and slow life-style and being a very large bird, vultures can be very secretive. In eastcentral Alberta in the 1980s and 1990s, Fish and Wildlife offices received occasional reports of sightings of vultures and a few discoveries of vulture nests. Wildlife biologists tried to visit these nests annually. In the late 1990s, several of our historically occupied sites were destroyed and several others were regularly unoccupied, and we began to advertise our interest in locating additional vulture nests in newspaper articles, at post-hunting season meetings and at other opportunities. 
   

Nest sites 
    Elsewhere in North America, turkey vultures traditionally nest on the ground under dense bushes or under logs, in large hollow logs or in cavities beneath wind-tossed trees, especially on islands that provide protection from terrestrial predators. They also regularly nest in rock jumbles and in potholes or caves in cliffs. Rarely do they use other birds’ large stick nests in trees. Occasionally they use abandoned buildings, however, in east-central Alberta all of the sites that we have learned about in recent years have been in abandoned buildings. In the Red Deer/Big Valley area we have been told of one nest in a building, but the few other known nests in that area and near Medicine Hat appear to be in the usual cliff settings. 
    Our vulture buildings to date have shared several characteristics. None of these buildings can be seen from an active human residence or farmyard. From their building the vultures may be able to see a busy highway only 100 metres away, but very rarely is there pedestrian activity there. Their abandoned farm buildings usually are in or adjacent to pastureland rather than cropland. Almost all of the vulture buildings are close to or snug against or actually within a grove of trees. 
    The buildings themselves can be quite different. One was an old dance hall, but it has recently decayed so badly that the vultures do not use it. Several are still-solid old farmhouses with the nests in upstairs rooms with access gained through missing windows, or with nests in attics with access gained through missing outside doors or windows or through missing shingles on the roof. Some are accessible by walking up stairs, others require ladders. All require caution! Some are in old barns. One pair nests in the manger of the main level of a huge 80-year-old, hip-roofed barn, gaining access through small windows about two metres above the floor. This pair failed in 2004 because the barn roof leaked and heavy rains soaked the eggs and nesting substrate straw in the manger. Because vultures do not actually build nests, they require some material that will prevent their eggs from rolling away. The substrate may be shavings used as insulation between the joists in an attic or it may be wind-blown dirt in a corner, rags or other attic debris. Even a layer of dried pigeon manure on the floor will suffice. Usually the nest is in a corner or at least against a wall or sloping roof. 
    A close look at our study area indicates that there are still many old farm buildings scattered about the landscape, some of which have vulture potential. We worry a bit about their limited 

Productivity and site fidelity 
    Of the nine nests we visited in 2003, eight held two nestlings and one held one, for a total of seventeen. In 2004 our informants brought the number up to 14 pairs, of which seven broods had two nestlings, three had one, again for a total of seventeen. Of the other four pairs, we know that two failed during incubation (broken or abandoned eggs) and from their behaviour we think that the final two pairs had nestlings close by, but we and our helpers could not find the nests. From 2003 to 2004, two pairs moved their nests nearby and the other seven used the same site in both years. In 2004 another nest was used after a lapse of at least three years. Of the sites new to us in 2004, two were known by local families to have been used for several years previously and one was definitely a new site with the amount of “whitewash” on the walls and floor representing only the 2004 brood. 

Nesting Range
    In Alberta, vultures are documented as nesting in the Grassland Natural Region in the Cypress Hills near Medicine Hat and in the Big Valley/Red Deer area. In the Parkland Natural Region they nest near Chauvin and Wainwright, near the North Saskatchewan River south of St. Paul and near Duvernay, south of Two Hills near Hairy Hill, and south of Waskateneau. In the early and mid 1900s vultures nested in the isolated patch of dry mixed-wood to the southeast and east of Edmonton at Miquelon, Ministik, and Astotin Lakes. In the main body of the dry mixed-wood portion of the Boreal Forest Natural Region, a ground-nest of vultures was found in Cold Lake Provincial Park in the 1970s and more recent nests in buildings have been found near Angling Lake, Ernestina Lake, the Beaver River north of Bonnyville, Moose Lake, Elk Point, St. Paul, and in the 1950s-1970s at Mann Lakes. The Cold Lake and Beaver River sites are the farthest north nests known. Numerous sightings near Lac La Biche suggest that eventually vultures will be found nesting there too, pushing the breeding range farther north. To date, in our east-central Alberta study area, all of the nests have been within a rough triangle from Provost to Edmonton to Cold Lake, with the bulk of the nests in the northern half.
     From our own observations and those of others, we strongly suspect that our east-central Alberta population of vultures is increasing, similar to but much more discretely than the recent increases in the common raven, osprey, bald eagle, and cougar in this area, perhaps resulting from less random shooting of “varmints”, less poisoning of large and small wildlife, and a burgeoning white-tailed deer population with its abundant road-kills. 

Searching for vultures
    In Saskatchewan, beginning in 2003, researchers have attached wing tags to nestling vultures when they were nearly full-grown. Those wing tags are on the right wing, green with large white numbers and letters, about the size of a large cattle ear tag, and are readable with binocs or telescope at long distances, whether the vulture has its wing open or closed. Please report sightings of wing-tagged vultures to the Bird Banding Office at 1-800-327-BAND, and to Stuart Houston at (306) 244-0742 or houstons@duke.usask.ca 
    We may be able to undertake a similar wing tagging program in Alberta to try to learn about movements, fidelity to natal areas, age at first breeding and many other aspects of the lives of the known individuals.
    If we can locate 15-20 active vulture nests, and if their annual return to those nests is relatively high, we may be able to efficiently monitor (say, every five years) the productivity and health of this population and the health of that very interesting part of the environment that they sample. For the part of the province north of Highway 13 (Provost - Camrose - Pigeon Lake - Alder Flats), we request reports of all vulture sightings, and especially any sightings of vultures on or in buildings. 
    Vultures have two serious chinks in their secrecy at their nest sites, which allow vigilant observers to find them. In mid-April to mid- May, having just arrived back from Texas, Mexico, or points south, adult vultures engage in several weeks of courtship with followflights and other aerial displays. But, importantly, they spend some time perched on the roofs or in the windows of their nest building or in large trees close by. In mid-August to late-September, young vultures, recently out of the nest, perch conspicuously in the windows, on the roof and near their nest building, between practice flights in the area and while awaiting their parents’ return with tasty treats. Charismatic megafauna, indeed!

Wayne Nelson is the Area Wildlife Biologist for the Fish and Wildlife Division (FWD) in St. Paul.
Floyd Kunnas is the Senior Wildlife Technician for the Northeast Region FWD in St. Paul.
Dave Moore is the Area Wildlife Biologist for FWD in Vermilion.
Contacts for vulture sightings:
 rwayne.nelson@gov.ab.ca
 floyd.kunnas@gov.ab.ca
 dave.moore@gov.ab.ca