Turkey Vulture

[Axeman]

I swear...I saw a turkey vulture yesterday afternoon in West Grey....there is some room for error b/c the bird was flying away and was a fair distance away...but it had the characteristic tetrahedral (is that the right word?) glide...and it had the right size, colour etc....do some stick around in winter or...could this be like a sighting like the recent sightings of turdus migratorious up here?

[GStuart]

I think the word you want is "dihedral".  I'm assuming, of course, that it had upward swept wings and that it wasn't flying like a triangular pyramid.

But that is definitely a good find.  

[Axeman]

lol...yep that's the word..had a brain cramp...kept looking at the tetra and thinking....my mother was right....I shouldn't have smoked all that crack as a kid...but would they be back and this far north of the golden horseshoe at this time of year?

[Iain]

Birds of prey can be very difficult to identify at long range.  Different species can take on different flight characteristics and appear to be something other than what they actually are.  In this case I think the two alternatives would be Bald Eagle and Rough-legged Hawk; both are large and can be completely dark like a TV.  At this time of year they are both much more common in Ontario than Turkey Vultures, even Golden Eagles are more numerous than TVs.  That said, your bird could very well have been a vulture... a very cold vulture.

Iain