A good place to semi-reliably search for Black Vultures is Hueston Woods
State Park, particularly the beach and lodge areas.  The best time to go
is early in the morning as the birds are sitting on the beach, and
associated structures, or on the roof of the lodge, fanning their wings
to dry out and warm up.

If you take a scope you'll be able to inspect each bird fairly well and
usually you can pull out at least one Black Vulture, and occasionally
more than one.

Here's a decent reference photo.  I took this in Granville in early
March. Hinckley gets all of the attention for its vultures, but
Granville probably has more vulture activity than Hinckley...so much so
that the sports mascot of Denison University, located in Granville, was
re-named the Big Red Buzzard (use to be the Big Red Bulldogs, but they
thought that was too similar to the beer that came out a number of years
ago & they didn't want to promote drinking on campus...go figure).

http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/276/4443/1024/IMG_5693.jpg

The thing to note in the photo are the light colored primaries (as
opposed to the primaries and trailing edge feathers in TV's), and the
shortened tail.  You can see the tip of the feet, in the photo, almost
reach the trailing edge of the tail.  The other thing is that Black
Vultures appear to have a wing shape that is more similar to a Red-tail
than it is to a Turkey Vulture and I'll often mistake a high soaring
Black Vulture for a Red-tail mixed in with a group of Turkey Vultures.

Hope this helps,

Casey

Casey Tucker
Education Specialist
Audubon At Home
Audubon Ohio
692 N. High St., Suite 303
Columbus, OH 43215-1585
614-224-3303 (phone)
614-224-3305 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
www.audubonohio.org
 
CELEBRATE Audubon's CENTENNIAL 
I00 Years of Conservation 

-----Original Message-----
From: MU Ornithology Listserv (ZOO 408)
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Artistry
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 3:20 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: West Chester Black Vultures

Funny that you say that about Black Vultures in your part of Butler
County.
People are always telling me that they are seeing Black Vultures. Once
in my
life I've seen one. Every few years I go back to the bird books to make
sure
I'm watching for the right field marks but I surely am and I am seeing
no
Black Vultures.
Now, I've taught my grandkids and husband what to watch for in case they
see
Black Vultures (Turkey Vultures are awesome!) so we have more eyes
watching - and still no Black Vultures...

          Debra grows art ...
      www.WaxinkMoon.com





-----Original Message-----
From: MU Ornithology Listserv (ZOO 408)
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Mike Busam
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 3:05 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: West Chester Black Vultures


Greetings... Eleven Black Vultures flew over the neighborhood today
around 1
p.m. while I was walking the kids to the bus stop. I've never seen Black
Vultures in this part of Butler County before.

Take care,
---Mike Busam
West Chester, OH