Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
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Summer has faded and autumn has returned to the Tehachapi Valley, bringing with it the annual spectacle of thousands upon thousands of migrating Turkey Vultures. Day after day, these big black birds soar through Tehachapi Pass on their journey southward. The vultures hitch rides on thermals to gain elevation, circling as they ascend rising columns of warm air like an invisible spiral staircase. This flight behavior is known as "kettling," for the way the jumbled circling birds look as though...
If you've glanced up in the skies over Tehachapi in the past month or so, you might have seen lots of large dark birds circling. These are Turkey Vultures, and their annual migration is one of the great natural spectacles of California. Each autumn, Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) come through Tehachapi Pass as they migrate south. There are not just hundreds, or even thousands of birds, but tens of thousands – a Turkey Vulture count in the fall of 2000 recorded 38,743 Turkey Vultures flying o...
Alien, by definition, means foreigner. I have been an alien visiting Tehachapi for over 20 years. It has become the place I escape to for a sense of nature and normalcy. I love the peaks and valleys of the sometimes green, sometimes brown, and sometimes white landscape. The epic wildflowers give me a childlike excitement when they briefly reveal their colors. The scant dusting of winter white fascinates me. To see it, makes me feel like a child with the promise that Santa Claus is coming to...
Hundreds of Turkey Vultures suddenly appear: What in the world is going on? You're driving in Tehachapi on a late afternoon in September or October, and you suddenly notice a few very large dark birds coasting through the sky, gliding down toward the treetops. As you look at them, you're aware of dozens more. "What the. . .?" you think to yourself as you watch these kite-like apparitions cluster around and then land in the tallest trees. You're not alone. Countless people have had the same...
Fall is here and the birds are moving from their summer breeding grounds in North America to the wintering grounds in Central and South America. As birds fly south they need places to rest and replenish on their way. One of the largest concentrations of migrating Turkey Vultures in North America comes down the Sierra Nevada, through the Kern River Valley and the Tehachapi area. Look up and you may see "kettles" of vultures swirling up into the sky. We know that some of our readers don't know why...
Fall is here and the birds are moving from their summer breeding grounds in North America to the wintering grounds in Central and South America. As birds fly south they need places to rest and replenish on their way. One of the largest concentrations of migrating Turkey Vultures in North America comes down the Sierra Nevada, through the Kern River Valley and the Tehachapi area. Look up and you may see "kettles" of vultures swirling up into the sky. We know that some of our readers don't know why...
Walking up Green Street in downtown Tehachapi after work, I glanced up and to see a multitude of soaring turkey vultures in the evening sky. Circling, sweeping, swaying in the updrafts, a tilt of the wings with an occasional flap as they sought to roost for the evening. Always a joy to see, we know there are some of our readers who don’t know why these wonderful creatures are traveling through the area. The following is reprinted from Kern Audubon’s website at kern.audubon.org/tvfest.htm: These birds travel up to 200 miles per day, so they des...
