International Vulture Awareness Day, and I forgot my costume!

It was in my carrion bag...yuck, yuck!

Joke if you wish about serving on the refreshments committee for this event, but even scavengers need more respect. It's a bad job, but somebody's gotta do it.

International Vulture Awareness Day is one of those "holidays" that will never be as big as Peeps Day (the Monday after Easter) or Hello Kitty's Birthday (November first).

Last January my walking buddy and I spied two black vultures in a white sycamore tree above Rowlett Creek as we walked the Caddo Trail. Black vultures are a bit smaller than turkey vultures, and more likely to be wearing white tube socks. These three photos were taken at Oak Point January 26, 2014 on the Caddo Trail. The black vultures were in a sycamore tree on the opposite side of Rowlett Creek.

Black vultures seem to be wearing white tube socks.

Black vultures only have white at the ends of their wings. The turkey vulture in the photo below looks different in flight:

Turkey vulture at the Heard Museum December 19, 2010

I have loved seeing vultures hang their wings out to warm up near Carlsbad, New Mexico. In the way-back time before cell phones I'll never forget trying to use a payphone after dusk in the bottom of Palo Duro beneath a roosting tree full of vultures. Another vivid memory did not go well for the vulture.

Identification and information sources:

• Wild Birds Unlimited
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• Texas Breeding Bird Atlas

Larry, Curley, Moe, I think

Curley, Moe, & Larry, I think