Science fiction writer Bradley Denton says a large cell tower near his home has been taken over by hundreds of buzzards.
You see, our cell-phone tower is now the permanent nighttime home of over a hundred black-headed buzzards. Big, ugly buzzards. The kind you see playing tug-of-war with whole deer carcasses.
Every morning when Barb and I begin our walk, there they are . . . just waking up, clacking their talons on the reverberant steel and stretching their great dark wings as they prepare to leap away and soar in search of the dead.
Once, I counted a hundred and twenty of them before I decided I didn't want to know how many there were. Sometimes the tower is black-feathered from top to bottom. Other days, there aren't so many. But I can't recall a morning when there were none. And those who are there always watch us as we walk by.
Reader comment:
Joel says:
The fellow who writes about the buzzards near his house should take a second to appreciate such a beautiful and interesting creature. Why, the vulture holds a distinction afforded few beings on this green earth. By consuming carrion, vultures step neatly out of the predator prey relationship. I think that's admirable, not spooky or unsettling.
Nature is a beautiful thing. A post like the buzzard one you hosted on boing boing I feel sad about. I wish more people felt differently about our fellow tenants.
Tony "Buzzard" Bussert says:
I'm a bit perplexed by why you included the comments from reader "Joel". He obviously didn't read the entire post from Bradley Denton, and by your posting the reader comment I'm inclined to think that you didn't either. In no way does it seem to me that Mr. Denton is taking offense to the buzzards. He says the following, "Yet it serves a purpose, and I know it has to be somewhere. We postmodern humans, we gots to have us our cell phones." This implies that he doesn't like the cell phone tower more than anything. He also says about the buzzards, "They're beautiful when they fly.". Your post of the comments of "Joel" detract from your usual thoughtful posts. Just thought I should point it out in the defense of Mr. Denton.
Kirsten Sanford (host and producer of TWIS – This Week in Science)says:
My thesis advisor at one point had a turkey vulture named Balzac. It was amazing to be able to get close to such a magnificent bird. They really are beautiful. Yes, some would probably find his red, wrinkled head slightly disturbing, but I thought he was quite regal looking. He had a thing for the chicks, too. Any man coming too close to his cage would get a screeching, but the ladies… he would sidle up to the wire mesh, tilt his head at us, and wink ever so suavely. All the while, he would make little whispering noises as if he were trying to tell us sweet nothings that would tempt us closer to him.
I wonder if the cell phone tower in the post by Mr. Denton is being used as a rookery of sorts, or if it just happens to be in the right place to give the birds good lift when they take to flight.
