November - Livermore Area Recreation and Park District

Valley Wilds
Volume 23 | Issue 11
November 2014
A publication of the LARPD Open Space Unit
Vulture Culture
By Ranger Amy Wolitzer
You’re dying of thirst and getting wearier with every step.
The sun is baking your back and there’s no end to your
journey in sight. The buzzards begin to circle overhead,
getting lower and lower as you slowly meet your demise...
Well, actually, you’re only a mile or two into Sycamore Grove
Park and not really dying - just
a little tired. But those buzzards
certainly are circling overhead!
Turkey vultures (also known as
“turkey buzzards”) are a common
sight over the wide open spaces
of Sycamore Grove Park. On the
ground they do resemble wild
turkeys, with their large size,
dark bodies, and most of all,
their red, bald heads. But when
they are in the sky they are often
mistaken for hawks. How to tell
the difference? Just remember
“V” for vulture - hawks typically
hold their wings out straight,
IN THIS
Issue
• Vulture Culture
• This Month’s Ranger-led
Programs and Activities
• Park News and Trivia Tidbit
• Fire in an Open Space Park
Livermore Area Recreation
and Park District
4444 East Ave. Livermore, CA 94550
www.larpd.dst.ca.us
Ranger Office: 925.960.2400
while vultures hold their wings
raised slightly in a “V” as they soar
in circles, sometimes wobbling
slightly. When seen from below,
vulture wings appear to be twotoned: dark near the shoulders
and a lighter gray below where
the light shines through their
flight feathers. Their wing span
can be nearly 6 feet across. They
tend to ride thermals (upward
currents of warm air), often in
circles, and rarely seem to flap
their wings.
The scientific name for turkey
vulture is Cathartes aura.
Cathartes translates loosely to
“purifier” and that is what vultures
do... if you consider eating rotting
carcasses purifying. Breaking
down dead animals is a necessary,
if unglamorous, role to play in
the web of life. When turkey
vultures dig into a carcass, they
are opening it up to myriads of
smaller decomposers which will
return nutrients to the soil.
Interestingly, “vulture” probably
comes from the Latin word vellere,
meaning to pluck or tear. I think
“purifying” sounds better than
“tearing” but either way, it is an
important job. If not for vultures,
corpses would take much longer
to decompose. Imagine if a walk
in the park involved avoiding
countless cesspools of rotting
flesh brimming with dangerous
bacteria, not to mention needing
to hold your nose the whole time.
We owe thanks to the vultures for
keeping our parks pleasant!
Dead animals are full of all kinds
of nasty bacteria but turkey
vultures have excellent immune
systems and especially corrosive
(and bacteria killing) stomach acid
allowing them to eat what would
make other beasts sick.
How do vultures find dinner?
There are at least two ways. There
has been much debate but it
is now accepted that our local
vultures are gifted with a good
sense of smell. It is less about the
sniffing apparatus itself and more
that evolution has fine-tuned the
brain to dedicate an unusually
large area to detecting odors.
Even when flying high above the
Continued on Page 4
Ranger-led
Programs
November
Programs
Experience nature and history in a special way. Programs are
generally 1 - 2 hours in length. A $3 donation is requested. A $5
parking fee is charged at Sycamore Grove Park.
Quick Look:
Autumn Leaves
Sunday, November 2
11:00 am
November Stars
Saturday, November 15
6:00 pm
Turkey Time!
Sunday, November 16
2:00 pm
Birds of Springtown
Saturday November 22
8:00 am
Late Autumn Campfire
Sunday, November 23
4:00 pm
Post Holiday Walk
Saturday, November 29
10:00 am
Autumn Leaves
Sunday, November 2
11:00 am
Why do some leaves change color and fall in autumn and some trees stay green year round? Why
do trees like our native buckeye lose their leaves at a different time of year? Come for a short walk
along a newly opened section of trail and learn about a phenomenon we often take for granted. We
will collect some of our favorite leaves to create leaf rubbings.
Ranger Claire Girling
Sycamore Grove Park, Arroyo Road Entrance
November Stars
Saturday, November 15
6:00 pm
It is the perfect time to come out to Sycamore Grove for an evening of night activities and
astronomy. Keep your eyes peeled for early Leonid meteors! We will be walking approximately three
miles on both paved and unpaved trails.
Ranger Glen Florey
Sycamore Grove Park, Wetmore Road Entrance
Turkey Time!
Sunday, November 16
2:00 pm
Gobble Gobble! Turkeys aren’t just on the table, they’re in our parklands too! Come
learn about wild turkeys and hopefully find some to admire. This will be an easy, slow
wander of less than a mile and will be great fun for both kids and adults. We’ll make a fun
Thanksgiving craft too.
Ranger Amy Wolitzer
Sycamore Grove Park, Arroyo Road Entrance
Birds of Springtown
Saturday, November 22
8:00 am
Join us for our fall “migration” to the north side of town in search of seasonal feathered visitors.
Over the years we’ve seen many duck and wading bird species here as well as a variety of raptors
and song birds. This program is appropriate for beginner through advanced birding enthusiasts.
There will be binoculars to lend for those who don’t have them. Cancelled if raining.
Ranger Patti Cole
Marlin Pound Park , 2010 Bluebell Drive
More Programs on Page 3
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More Programs, Park News and Trivia
More November Programs
Late Autumn Campfire
Sunday, November 23 4:00 pm
Join us to enjoy an evening by the campfire. We’ll
enjoy cocoa and s’mores (provided) while learning
about a few of our nocturnal park residents. Bring
a chair or blanket to sit on and food to cook over
the fire if you’d like. Call (925) 960-2400 or email
[email protected] for reservations. A $3 per
person donation is requested.
Ranger Dawn Soles
Sycamore Grove Park, Reservable Picnic Area
Annual Parking Passes
and Calendars available
November 3rd!
Sycamore Grove
Park
Livermore, California
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Post Holiday Walk
Saturday, November 29 10:00 am
Are we holidayed out yet? The key to enjoying the
holidays is to pace yourself. Now that we have had
our fill of food, sports and (dare I say it?) relatives,
It’s time to reboot with a walk in the wild. Join us
on a three-mile wander as we burn off calories and
concerns in preparation for round two next month.
Bring water, binoculars or a camera and some of
those relatives if you like.
Ranger Darren Segur
Sycamore Grove Park, Arroyo Road Entrance
Trivia Tidbit
Rangers and firefighters do prescribed burns in
Sycamore Grove Park for all of the following
reasons except:
A) To control invasive plants
B) To reduce built up fuels
C) To make way for wildflowers and native
plants
D) To add a “campfire” aroma to the park
Answer: D) Although
Rangers do love the
campfire aroma,
that is not one of
the official reasons
we do prescribed
burns.
Calendars (usually $10) are discounted
to $6 for 2015 annual pass purchasers.
Livermore Residents
$48 (Seniors $24)
Non-residents
$72 ( Seniors $48)
Senior discount for
those 60 or over.
Passes and calendars can be purchased at
the Community Center, 4444 East Avenue
or by calling (925) 373 5700
beginning November 3rd.
Race to the Flagpole
Saturday, November 8
Please be advised Sycamore Grove Park will be very
busy the morning of Saturday, November 8. Race
to the Flagpole is staging at Independence Park
and running through Sycamore Grove. The race
should be cleared out by 1:00 pm. The Arroyo Road
Entrance should be less busy than the Wetmore
Road Entrance in the morning but you may
encounter traffic delays at Wetmore and Arroyo.
Info about the race here:
http://www.livermoregranadaboosters.org/
Race/2014/
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Vulture Culture (Continued)
ground, turkey vulture brains are triggered by even
faint odors produced by decomposing animals.
Gas and oil companies took advantage of that fine
sense of smell by adding a smelly compound to
the oil and gas that is similar to a smell produced
by rotting carrion and then watching for turkey
vultures circling to locate leaks in the line.
Oddly, a close cousin of our turkey vulture is not
so gifted when it comes to smell. Black vultures
inhabit the Southern US and Central and South
America. Numerous informal experiments done in
the 1800s found black vultures were attracted to
a painting of an eviscerated sheep and ignored a
smelly rotting animal hidden not far away from the
mouth-watering painting. An amusing account of
these experiments and others can be found here.
In areas where both turkey and black vultures live,
black vultures often follow turkey vultures to find
food.
Turkey vultures do not rely entirely upon smell,
especially since they appear to prefer to dine on
freshly dead (and not yet stinky) carrion. Like black
vultures, they have good eyesight and investigate
anything that looks like it may be a good, dead
meal. They are also opportunistic. I once witnessed
a red-tailed hawk catch a squirrel and settle down
on a fence post to enjoy its meal. Within minutes
it had a would-be dining companion – a turkey
vulture sitting on a nearby fence post waiting
to pick up any dropped scraps or take over the
consuming when the hawk had her fill. Vultures
also frequently scan the roadways for roadkill and
quickly settle on anything that loses the battle with
modern technology. A few times I have seen the
sad sight of a vulture that was so immersed in its
meal, it did not get out of the way of a car quickly
enough and joined its meal as a second course for
other vultures.
There is the sad tale of a turkey vulture that
stopped to rest on some powerlines near the old
VA bridge in Sycamore Grove Park in 2012. At
some point it outstretched its wings (perhaps to
take flight) and made contact with two lines. The
current arced, electrocuting the bird and catching
it on fire. It fell to the ground and started a small
grass fire. Luckily, Ranger Royal Magnell (now
working in Nevada) was in the nearby ranger office
and noticed the power go out. He went outside to
investigate, smelled smoke, and headed down in
our 250 gallon fire truck. He had the grass fire (and
the charred vulture) mostly extinguished by the
time the fire department arrived on scene.
Banding studies have found that turkey vultures
in the wild live an average of 10 years. However,
it would seem with a little TLC they can live much
longer. The Lindsay Museum in Walnut Creek has
a turkey vulture named Richard who hatched in
1974. She is 40 years old! (Male and female turkey
vultures look very similar and she was named
before she revealed her sex in the clearest way
possible, by laying an egg.)
“Are you going to eat that whole squirrel?”
Turkey vultures have few predators and perhaps
this is because of their interesting (and disgusting)
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Vulture Culture (Continued)
themselves. Sometimes as many as forty or
fifty of them can be seen in a pillar, riding the
thermals high in the sky. They are also often seen
on cool mornings sunning themselves, wings
out-stretched, perched atop tree snags or fence
posts. This is thought to dry their wings, warm
their bodies and kill bacteria and parasites. And it
probably feels good too.
way of defending themselves when they do feel
threatened – they can projectile vomit partiallydigested carrion. This seems to successfully gross
out most everybody. But this is not their only
disgusting habit. When temperatures get very
hot the turkey vulture has a rather vulgar way of
cooling off. The vulture will urinate on his legs and
feet and the evaporation of the liquid will cool him
down. This may also kill bacteria, but even if that
is an added benefit, I don’t suggest trying to cool
down this way if you want to remain in human
company!
Let’s take a closer look at some of the facial oddities
of a turkey vulture. Firstly, why the bald head? The
most likely answer is that long ago, when ancestral
relatives of the turkey vulture first decided it
was a good idea to stick their heads into rotting
animals, it was the ones with the fewest feathers
on their heads who avoided harboring parasites
and getting horrible bacterial infections in their
important facial areas. Nature selected for baldness.
A related oddity is the turkey vulture’s nostrils. If
you get a chance to gaze closely at a vulture from
the side you will find you can see right through one
nostril and out the other side. There is no septum
dividing the nostrils as we have. This keeps their
nostrils clear of rotten meat and bacteria. The
increased airflow may also help in sniffing out dead
things.
When turkey vultures are out circling they may be
looking (or smelling) for a meal, but I am pretty
sure these birds are sometimes just enjoying
For decades now there has been confusion over
where to place turkey vultures in bird books. It has
long been agreed that the new world (American)
vultures are not closely related to the old world
vultures of Africa, Asia and Europe. Convergent
evolution has shaped unrelated ancestors into
birds specialized for eating dead things. Both old
world and new world vultures were traditionally
grouped with hawks, eagles and falcons. In the
late 20th century, DNA studies indicated that our
vultures were more closely related to storks and
herons (Family Ciconiidae). Later these DNA studies
were found to be erroneous and more recent DNA
studies imply American vultures should indeed be
grouped with hawks and eagles. Some taxonomists
put them in a whole new order Cathariformes.
As we continue to advance our understanding of
the important role of these birds in nature, I think
it is safe to predict turkey vultures will continue to
take only mild interest in us as they circle overhead,
wobbling as they ride the thermals. But next time
you’re out hiking or biking and see vultures circling,
I hope you’ll take a moment to thank them for their
important role in “purifying” our park lands.
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Fire in an Open Space Park
By Ranger Glen Florey
You may have noticed that the upper portion of
Sycamore Grove Park has been closed a few times
recently for prescribed burns. I have been fortunate
to participate in most of the fires in the park the last
few years, and it has been an interesting learning
process. When we schedule a fire in the park we
have two main objectives: resource management
and training for both our staff and the local fire
agencies who participate.
For many years Sycamore Grove had cattle grazing
throughout the park. They kept the grasses low but
had no preference for faster growing non-native
plant species over native species. As a result many
of our native species are now only found in the very
steep areas of the park that were hard for cattle to
reach. In the years since cattle have been removed
from the park non-native plants have continued to
spread. Many of these plants are “annuals” – they
only live one season and die after setting seeds.
Without the cows to remove the dead material the
“thatch” has gotten so thick that light no longer
reaches the soil making it near impossible for native
species to push through to the light. By burning
hilly areas of the park with thick thatch we have had
great success in allowing the native plants already
present in the areas to spread and be much more
visible in the spring. The wildflower displays in the
burned areas are some of the best in the park.
While the controlled burns are certainly the largest
fires we have had in the park in recent years there
are also occasionally small fires accidently started
by staff using heavy equipment in the park. Every
spring we mow large fire breaks through the park
so if there is a fire in the dry season it will be easier
to contain. However, this requires using a heavy
duty mower off trail and the risk of a blade striking
a rock and starting a fire is considerable. To reduce
this hazard it is standard procedure to follow
the mower with our patrol fire truck to quickly
extinguish any accidental fires. The experience
other rangers and I have gained on controlled
burns in the park makes this an even safer plan.
As I mentioned, the rangers have a small patrol fire
truck that holds 250 gallons of water but that isn’t
nearly enough to keep things safe during a large
controlled burn in the park. For several years we
have worked with the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire
Department to plan and carry out burns in the park.
Other agencies such as Camp Parks Fire, Alameda
County Fire and Cal Fire have sent crews to burns in
the park to gain valuable experience working with
wildland fire.
Fire in a wildland environment is scary and can
be quite intense, but we are learning to use it as
a tool to keep the park beautiful and healthy. At
least as important is learning how to quickly get an
uncontrolled fire under control to keep everyone
in and around the park safe. As the rains start I
encourage everyone to head up to the burned
areas of the park to watch the transformation from
blackened hillsides into fields of wildflowers and
native grasses!
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