Ella captured this fuzzy snapshot at the moment the giant black buzzard alighted on our neighbor’s chimney. He (or she?) had just concluded his lunch in our backyard, finishing off one of the many grey squirrels which inhabit (infest?) our oak-adorned neighborhood.
We are accustomed to sparrows, songbirds, and the occasional squad of ravens patrolling for their next chance at mayhem, but a buzzard dining in the backyard, mere feet from our back door, that is a rarity. Technically, this gargantuan bird is a Black Vulture. Thanks to Ella’s quick interwebs search, we learned we live at the northern edge of this specie’s habitat. Turkey Vultures, which I watched circle overhead on many a hot High Plains summer day, roam a much larger expanse of the continent; why that is I leave to the ornithologists.
While no biologist, I do know these birds fill an important role in our ecology, keeping the environment clean as part of the continual life-and-death cycle that transpires even in the suburbs. When Ella and I see these birds, we can’t help but recollect the hours spent reading to our boys about Texas cow-dogs, ranches, cattle, and buzzards. If you haven’t discovered John Erickson’s children’s series Hank the Cowdog, I highly commend it to you. While keeping to vocabulary basic enough for young children, he manages, through vivid storytelling and lively characters, to speak meaning and truths beyond simple words.
“Now let me say right here that I’d never had much use for Old Man Wallace. He and I had run into each other on several occasions and he’d always struck me as a loud, overbearing, self-centered, unfriendly old buzzard.
But Junior was a different kind of bird. For one thing, he liked to sing, and anybody who likes to sing be entirely bad, even if he happens to be a buzzard. Junior had always treated me fair and square, and even though I didn’t approve 100 percent of his profession and eating habits, I couldn’t help liking him.” P. 31, Hank The Cowdog – The Wounded Buzzard on Christmas Eve.
Thank God for the buzzard!
