Decatur, Tennessee – My friend Eric Almy recently spotted and photographed a black vulture in the sky near Watts Bar Dam. Some people call the vulture a buzzard, but it doesn’t matter what you call it, so in this article I’ll refer to it as “H-21.”
Almy shared a photo of the H-21 with me to ask if I knew anything about why it has a prominent wing tag. I am well versed in banding studies of birds and migration patterns, capturing different species and applying bands to their legs. However, this type of bird marking was new to me.
But it didn’t take much Googling to track down Mississippi State University (MSU)’s Dr. Scott Rush.
Dr. Scott Rush of Mississippi State University’s Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture. Dr. Rush has received many awards and honors, including recognition from the Tennessee Valley Authority for “Contributions to Conservation.” (Photo provided by MSU)
For at least six years, Dr. Rush has conducted research to analyze and potentially mitigate human-wildlife conflicts, with a special emphasis on airborne encounters that can be fatal to pilots.
“We are currently tagging both turkeys and black vultures in Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi,” Dr. Rush said, adding, “To date, we have tagged over 600 vultures, most of them in Mississippi.”
However, H-21 was tagged very close to where Almy took this photo.
“This bird, H-21, is an adult female Black Vulture that we tagged across the river from the boat ramp just outside TVA’s Wat Bar (Nuclear Power Plant) in September 2024. This sighting is the first reported sighting of this bird to us since it was first tagged.”
He said the research effort was born out of a partnership with the Department of Defense and the Meridian (Michigan) Airport Authority.
“The interest there was to assess the movement of these birds in comparison to military and civilian aircraft,” Dr Rush said. “I have (also) partnered with TVA for years to help address issues with cormorants, woodpeckers, eagles, ospreys, and vultures, each of which can impact the safety and delivery of utility power distribution.”
Many fishermen know about “conflicts”. For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, vultures around the Watts Bar boat ramp have been known to land on anglers’ cars and trucks, pecking and chewing on the rubber moldings around car doors and windows.
“Citizen feedback is critical to the project,” Dr. Rush said. “We need more citizens to contact us if they spot a tagged vulture.”
This map shows the areas and areas where vultures were tagged and sighted during this research project. The small pink dot is the re-observation location. (Illustration courtesy of Dr. Scott RusH, MSU)
To report a sighting, call or email Rush at 662-325-0762 or scott.rush@msstate.edu.
“Please include the date, time, location and tag number of the vulture sighted,” he said. “Observers should report sightings even if they cannot read the tag number. Information would also be great if the observer could report how many other vultures the tagged bird they observed appeared with, and its activity, such as feeding on roadkill or roosting.”
Of the more than 600 birds tagged so far, he said they have received more than 400 reports, some involving multiple birds.
“Of these birds that we began tagging in 2020, we also confirmed 21 deaths. Together, this information allows us to track changes in bird migration locations, survival, and, to a lesser extent, population changes. We are applying techniques similar to the work we conducted in Mississippi to address how to most effectively address vulture-human conflict in the Tennessee River Basin.”
Again, if you spot a vulture with a tag similar to H-21, please contact Dr. Rush at 662-325-0762 or scott.rush@msstate.edu.
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