[CT Birds] Mansfield Hollow and a White Turkey Vulture

[Mntncougar at aol.com]

I stopped at the boat launch at Mansfield Hollow this afternoon  and 
spotted 14 Ring-necked Ducks and (for some reason) 1 male Hooded  
Merganser, across the road in the open water.  
Then I headed for  the area where the Turkey Vultures roost in Willimantic, 
but I was not  prepared 
for what I saw.  There has been an all white TV seen  repeatedly in the area. 
 I arrived around 3:10 and there was 1 TV just  coming 
in to the spruce tree on Windham street.  In the next few  minutes at 
least 20 more of them arrived.  At that point so did Bill  Hutt, who had seen 
the white bird the day before. Together we searched for the  
white TV, and after about 10 minutes we spotted it.  All together  we 
saw it at least 3 times and got fairly good though brief looks at  
it.  There is no doubt its a basically all white TV with just a  
little shading on the underside of the wings.  What really blew  me  away 
though was the number of TV's.  They just kept coming and  
coming. To say I've never seen that many together at once would be an  
understatement.  At 1 point they all flushed from the spruce, which  
was weighted down with them.  They all began circling over the  
general area and the sky was literally full of them.  At 1 point I  
counted 53 between those above and those roosting in the tree, and as  
it's a residential area with houses and tall trees all around, I 
could  not begin to see all of them.  When I left around 4:00 they 
were still  circling and coming in to the tree.  I'd guess there are 
easily more  than 75. Even at the hawk watch  I 
never saw that many in an  entire day.  It seems to be an odd place 
for such a roost, but it's a  great sight!
Don  Morgan
Coventry




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