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.

Fun With Buzzards

In the Sierra valley where my mom lives, there are birds that return, like the swallows to Mission San Juan Capistrano, on the same day every year.

Only here it's buzzards. Big, dark, hulking, dead-thing-eating buzzards. NOT quite the same thing as cutesy, graceful swallows. But, we have some fun with the ones roosting in the large Cottonwood trees across the road from the house anyway. The kid lies down in the driveway, doing her best to look dead, bloated and yummy.

The buzzards, however, are unimpressed and there are no takers.

They do soar nicely against the evening sky, though. LOTS of them. When they come in for a landing in the Cottonwood trees, they do so with a resounding, stumbling crash and a shower of broken-off small branches.