Tag Archives: buzzard

Harbinger of Spring

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2016-04-21YH Blackbird6480

Harbinger. “a person or thing that announces or signals the approach of another”.

“Yellow-headed Blackbirds are the harbingers of spring”.
    If that ‘s so then we’re getting harbingered all over the place. Yellow-headed Blackbirds, their cousins the Red-winged Blackbirds, even Brewer’s Blackbirds are coming in dragging Spring behind them. There have been other signs of Spring too. Bluebirds have been seen everywhere, flitting shamelessly about, grabbing your attention with their deep shining American bluebird blueness. Even everyone’s favorite Buzzard the buteo buteo has arrived to eat the dead things you’ve been tripping over all winter that have been lying around all over the place. Spring is pretty darn great.

    We could wax poetically all day about the Yellow-headed Blackbird but when you get right down to it, they’re basically just a black bird with a yellow head, plus a little white on it’s wings. Lot of people who aren’t birders or just don’t give a flying fig about Nature would say “Yeah, So, What’s the big deal?”  But they miss the point. That’s the cool part of Nature. They’re the only bird that looks like that. And they do that harbinger thing too. So all you Nattering Nabobs of Negativity can just go pound sand. We’re glad that there are Yellow-headed Blackbirds harbingering Spring and you should be too. Remember just a few minutes ago we were up to our keesters in snow and cold, and short, ugly grey days and you were whining about Spring, how you wish it would get here and everything. Well it’s here and Yellow-headed Blackbirds are partly responsible so show a little respect.

   We have posted this image of a Yellow-headed Blackbird doing its thing. If you look very closely you can even see a few vestiges of Spring swirling and trailing behind it as it flies toward the Blackbird Country Club located over in the reeds next to the lake. It’s singles night tonight and there will be plenty of female Yellow-heads there just waiting to get hit on. Spring, it’s all good.

The Cleaners

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The Cleaners3716Turkey Vulture                                                             Click to enlarge

Come on Stan. This Thanksgiving day thing they’ve got going is great, I heard they just threw out a bunch of leftovers down the road here. We’ll be first.

Ahhh, you go ahead Ollie, I’ll just rest here a sec.

What do you mean you’ll rest here, what’s the matter with you, there’s two day old turkey down there and it hasn’t been refrigerated. You gonna pass that up?

Jeez man how much turkey have we eaten? I’m saying forty pounds a piece and if you have to know, I’m getting mighty sick of turkey. I can’t gag down another wishbone.

Stan, Stan, Stan, I’ve never seen you like this man. Remember when we were eating week-old road kill and you were saying I can’t wait for Thanksgiving and we can get some nice fresh turkey. You weren’t so picky then, in fact I seem to remember you saying you were pretty sick of coyote.

Yeah I know Ollie but look at me. I’m totally bliveted out, I’m so fat I can’t fly, my feathers are covered in turkey crap, I’ve had it. I’m going to sit here until I can stand the thought of turkey again. You go, I’ll see you back at the roost.

Okay dude but this stuff isn’t going to last for ever. I’m thinking we’ve only got a week or two more of leftover turkey, then it’s back to the highway. You better pull it together man, you’re starting to embarrass me. I’ll tell the others you had a little bit of stomach trouble otherwise you may not get back in the roost.