Capistrano Gets Swallows, We Get Buzzards

Every year at this time our area becomes part of the breeding ground for Turkey Buzzards.  This morning we had some roosting in our neighbor's trees.

They are pretty much unmistakable, being so goddamned HUGE.  There were mostly adults with a few juveniles thrown in.

They are so big and have such large wings that they have to kinda hang out in the trees in the morning and spread their wings a bit, waiting for them to warm up enough to fly.

This group was pretty cool and didn't panic over having a camera pointed at them.

Then their buddy showed up and bumbled his way into the group. When they'd land they'd break off branches, it sounded like gunshots.


We had a bad accident involving a cattle truck out on the highway yesterday, a bunch of cattle were killed.  That may be why they are around.  They tend to hang around in the same roosting area--my mom gets them in the trees across the highway from her house every year like clockwork.  The chickens kept an eye on them, but obviously weren't all that concerned about them.