Happy National Buzzard Day!

...when you're from HalloweenTown, a shrunken head IS a good gift.

(That's what I meant to write to begin this morning.)

Yes, here it is, the Ides of March, also National Buzzard Day, when thousands of Turkey Vultures (incorrectly referred to as buzzards: buzzards are hawks, hawks are birds of prey; vultures are carrion eaters, the clean up crew of the natural world, if you will.) return to Hinckley, Ohio.

Join in the celebration! see Annual Buzzard Sunday.

For a detailed account of why they return, see History.

Buzzard is a much friendlier word than vulture (V words being notorious for their unpleasant associations: vile, violence, vulgar, vinegar, vicious, vitupretive, venom, vortex, vice...) so it's certainly understandable that Hinckley would be celebrating its 47th annual Buzzard Day rather than Turkey Vulture Day.

But I like to clear up these technical misnomers when I can.