Saturday, September 05, 2009

International Vulture Awareness Day

 

vulture

 

International Vulture Awareness Day is Saturday Sept. 5... Who Knew? Still, vultures are really cool birds and get a bad rap what with the whole eating of dead things....

Where did I find this out? Well, I follow several zoos and this came up on Tampa Lowry Park Zoo's Facebook page, and later I saw it tweeted by them. The picture at the top of this entry is from their tweet & facebook pages. The vulture in it is part of their Spirits of the Sky show.If you live in the Tampa area, you should check them out. Very nice zoo.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've seen(on film) a tiger kill a vulture encroaching on his dead prey. Hey, at least they go after already dead things.

I've known some vultures ;0, just not these kind.~Mary

Donna. W said...

I love seeing turkey vultures fly; I just don't want to get too close to them, because up close, they're ugly.

Slapinions said...

"and get a bad rap, what with the whole eating of dead things . . ."

Priceless. :)

Jon said...

I suppose vultures deserve a special day.
Is there a difference between vultures and buzzards?? When I lived in San Angelo, TX there were always groups of turkey buzzards hanging around my yard. It was extremely unnerving.......

DesLily said...

eons ago when my X and I were riding our motorcycles in Va. we were on some small back road when all of a sudden a vulture "buzzed us".. let me tell you what.. we nearly ran our bikes off the road! I had never seen one with it's wings out that close and it scared the beejeebies out of both of us!.. the vulture came back to some "road kill" close to where we were riding.. On the ground he was still freaking big! LOL.. and now I had the Turkey Vulture land right outside my glass doors once.. he wasn't as big as the one in VA.. THAT one I will NEVER forget lol

Astaryth said...

In answer to Jon (e-mailed & posted):

I found this online here: http://vulturesociety.homestead.com/TVFacts.html ; Hope that answers your question

WHAT IS A BUZZARD?
Buzzard is the correct term for a family of hawks. (ie the European buzzard, Buteo buteo, closely related to the American red tailed hawk). In America, the term is often employed incorrectly to describe vultures. This probably dates back to the arrival of the first English colonists. There are no vultures of any type in England, so these pioneers probably gave the common term "buzzard" to all the soaring figures above the New World.

Rebecca Anne said...

Now that is one big old bird! The next time I think I could die on the side of a Mountain, I'll think of this picture and get my butt up and hike out~