turkey vulture, turkey buzzard, buzzard

i never know what might pique my interest. on sunday, it was the train of buzzards soaring above the amarillo skyline, working their way north. looking for a picture to go with yesterday's piece i stumbled upon some interesting information about the turkey vulture, aka turkey buzzard or just buzzard. one of the pieces i scanned, was from the 1930's. it recorded observing vultures "migrating" in march, at times into the hundreds of birds, each riding the thermals, all in a line much as i described yesterday. the perkins observatory in delaware, ohio has recorded similar flights of vultures each spring. perhaps more widely known are the buzzards of hinckley, ohio. each year on march 15, the residents of hinckley await the vultures return to "buzzards roost". somewhere in the back of my memory, i knew about the buzzards returning to hinckley, ohio but i had no idea from where and i had no idea that the turkey vulture can travel as far as south amercia to spend the winter. in spring they begin their journey back to the north, some traveling into canada to spend the breeding season. who knew that vultures have migratory routes and habits. but they do, some return to hinckley, ohio on each march 15th; not unlike the swallows returning to san juan capistrano on march 19th each year. little cute birds, big ugly birds; all are part of the grand scheme of things. each of us, whether it be swallow, buzzard or human holds a place in this world... all dependent, to a degree, on the other to maintain nature's balance. and i'm out