The vultures are migrating.
The Arboretum had a workshop, “Bye, Bye Buzzards,” which we missed, but doing more research on our Turkey Vultures, “buzzard” is a complete misnomer, as that apparently refers to the genus “Buteo,” for which the records I have seen indicate it exists only across the Atlantic….. Turkey Vultures are Cathartes aura, a whole different genus indigenous to the new world.
But early settlers had never seen a vulture before, so they called them Buzzards, until they were properly classified.
As you know, we have had much enjoyment watching our Turkey Vultures from the front porch, and we will miss seeing their graceful flights over the area. We used to see two to four, circling over our corner of town, since we are close to the mountains. They’d catch a thermal and glide for hours on end.
I guess we are too far north for them here for the winter, because a week ago Sunday (on the 8th,) we went out on our porch, looked up to the sky and and saw a HUGE kettle of vultures flying overhead.
No, I am not tripping, there are no flocks of vultures, the term for any group of vultures is “kettle,” which is not as strange as a “murder’ of crows.
The vultures circled and circled and circled, and after an hour or so, flew off, almost single file in a serpentine pattern to the Northwest.
I thought that was a little strange, but maybe they were in search of food to feed up on for their journey to their winter quarters.
We will miss seeing these huge birds and look forward to seeing them next summer.