Today is International Vulture Awareness Day, which makes it the perfect day to dust off this old blog and get it up and running again.
I happen to love vultures. I never get tired of seeing them patrol the skies and I still get a little thrill when I spot a black vulture among the more numerous turkey vultures in my area.
My last memorable encounter with vultures happened in July in the Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown, Pennsylvania. The zoo has a lovely open exhibit of bald eagles near the entrance, the sort of enclosure that relies on moats and walls rather than fencing to keep the animals in. They have two bald eagles in the exhibit and I was snapping pictures of them, wondering why in the world they had so many black vultures in with the eagles. Then the sun came out from behind a cloud and the vultures, as if on cue, opened their wings to catch some rays. I then realized the vultures were neither pinioned nor banded and therefore had to be volunteers. The wild vultures had figured out that the bald eagle exhibit was a safe place to hang out and pick up some fishy snacks.
Vultures won't be in the Cincinnati area much longer this year; they wander down south for the winter months. So get outside and have a look at the skies, especially on a warm sunny day and you'll almost certainly be rewarded with a vulture sighting.
