Buzzard Day!

Now that you have all been educated about the term "Buzzard", it's time to celebrate the annual arrival of the "buzzards" (ahem, Turkey Vultures...) in the town of Hinckley, Ohio.

Each year on March 15th, the Humans of Hinckley gather at 6:30 in the morning with binoculars and coffee, each trying to spot the first arriving Turkey Vulture of the year.

See, Turkey Vultures are migratory. Each year around September they form into large groups called 'kettles' and fly south for the winter. Their bare legs and heads just can't keep them warm during the cold US winters. So they cruise on down to Mexico and Venezuela and the like, where they soar on jungle thermals and feast on the flesh of dead...monkeys? Then, in the spring, they return to the US for the warm weather and different selection of carcasses.

In the town of Hinckley, the Humans understand how awesome and incredible Turkey Vultures are*, so they celebrate their arrival each year with Buzzard Day. It's considered the official start of spring for them! March 15th was selected as the day for this fiesta back in the 1950's, when for six years in a row the first Turkey Vulture arrived in town on March 15th. It doesn't always happen on that day, so the inhabitants of Hinckley just pretend they didn't see that Vulture back on March 11th...

I haven't yet seen any Turkey Vultures here in Fort Collins this year. Have any of you Humans? Because I agree with Hinckley: when the Turkey Vultures arrive, spring is here. Of course, there are other migratory Raptors I could use for that same purpose (the Merlins and the Rough Legged Hawks should be heading north now, and the Swainson's Hawks will be hot on the tails of the Turkey Vultures), but there's something about the uniqueness of Vultures that makes their arrival more notable. More 'springy".

Now, even though I support the idea of Buzzard Day in Hinckely, I had to ask: where is a town celebrating Owls? Unfortunately I asked this question too late, as the International Festival of Owls in Houston, Minnesota just happened a couple of weekends ago. I don't know how I'll make it happen, but next year: I'm going.

In the meantime, Happy Buzzard Day!


*Telling you about how cool Turkey Vultures are will have to wait for another article. In fact, I think I'm going to start giving a profile on each of the amazing Raptor species seen here in Colorado, maybe one a week. Stay tuned!

Q&A Corner

Good afternoon! A reader of this blog asked a follow-up question to last week's Q&A (the question was about pseudonyms for birds). She asked if I could please explain the use of the word "buzzard". Absolutely!

Buzzard is a common word that is used two different ways. The different uses are not right or wrong, just different, but they can cause some confusion:

Common Buzzard

• Buzzard - Old World:   In birding terms, everything east of the Atlantic Ocean is considered the Old World, while the Americas are the New World*. And in the Old World, especially Europe, the word buzzard means hawk. More specifically, it refers to broad-winged hawks, or buteos. Even more specifically, it refers to the Common Buzzard, Buteo buteo. In American terms, it's like a causal observer glancing up in the sky, seeing a broad-winged raptor soaring around and saying to her friend, "Hey, a hawk!" and the friend replying, "What kind of hawk? A Red-Tailed Hawk?", except they would say, "Hey, a buzzard!" and the friend would reply, "What kind of buzzard? A Common Buzzard?"   

Turkey Vulture, sometimes called a buzzard'

• Buzzard - New World:  Here in the U.S. 'buzzard' has a different meaning altogether. When we say buzzard, we mean vulture. Since the only two  vultures we have flying around our skies are the Turkey Vulture and the Black Vulture, that's usually what is meant by buzzard. Also, buzzard is sometimes used as a derogatory term for a Raptor, like, "Look at that buzzard on that telephone pole, just waiting to eat my chickens!"  

• Buzzard - not Raptor related:  Then there's the colloquial use of  buzzard to describe someone contemptible or bloodthirsty. I'm sure that has its roots in the [undeserved] bad reputation of vultures. In a sentence, you could say, "That old buzzard behind the front desk is just trying to ruin my day!" 

An amusing exercise to see how commonly the word 'buzzard' is used in its various forms is to do a Google image search for 'buzzard'. You'll see an interesting mix of hawks, vultures, cartoon vultures, and one guy with blood on his face who was obviously on the receiving end of some talons. 

Thanks for the question! Anyone who wants me to answer a Raptor-related or completely non-Raptor-related question, just send an email to "talons of doom (one word) @ gmail . com"

*Please note that Australia, New Zealand and the rest of the South Pacific are apparently world-less.