# Buzzard rescued, maybe?



## conditionfreak (Jan 11, 2008)

Just a short story of my last couple of days.

We have been experiencing a snow and ice porblem here in lower Ohio over the last few days. The power went out and the roads were terrible. It was just bad around here. Two inches of ice on the sidewalks. Still is rough driving.

Anyway, Two days ago I saw a buzzard (vulture) walking around our back yard. This was highly unusual as I have a German Shepherd there. The dog was not bothering the buzzard though. Maybe because of being used to my pigeons. I went out to have a closer look at the buzzard and saw that it could not fly. Both of its' wings were covered in ice. Maybe a quarter of an inch thick. It ran from me but could not even open its wings in an effort to fly. The wings were frozen and completely covered in ice.

I got out a fishing net on a pole and captured the buzzard (not wanting to use my hands as its' beak looked very formidable). I caught it easily and put it into a small dog cage I have. I put it in my garage and attached a 100 watt light bulb next to one side of the cage. I then put a couple of weiners (hot dogs) in the cage and a bowl of water. The bird could barely move and I felt that it was going to die, but I had to try.

By the next day, it had not eaten and apparently had not drank any water. It still had ice on its wings but I did not want to cook it, so I moved the light bulb just a little closer to it, but not too close.

Today, I went out and found that all of the ice had melted away from its body and wings, but the bird had not eaten any of the weiners and the water bowl was turned over.

I took the cage outside and let the buzzard out. It flew up to a nearby pine tree and landed. It sat there for about a minute, shaking his body and stretching its wings. Then it soared up in the air, riding the currents and looking good.

It circled directly above my head for several minutes. Just going round and round about fifty feet above me, with its' head cocked, looking down at me. I just had the feeling that it was confused by me and what had happened. I even thought that maybe, just maybe, it was saying thank you or good bye.

In about five minutes, it left. Effortlessly soaring away. I was thrilled seeing it look so good.

I had a good day today.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

That's a wonderful story. Great save!


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

ah thats cool, sounds like that was a special moment there,,,it feels so good to be so close to mother nature and know you did something good....I would of ate the weiners if I was him though...nice story and told well, enjoyed.


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

Very nice save, conditionfreak! I'm glad there was a happy ending for the vulture!

Terry


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## Bella_F (Nov 29, 2008)

conditionfreak said:


> Just a short story of my last couple of days.
> 
> We have been experiencing a snow and ice porblem here in lower Ohio over the last few days. The power went out and the roads were terrible. It was just bad around here. Two inches of ice on the sidewalks. Still is rough driving.
> 
> ...


Thats such a beautiful story. You're totally awesome for saving his life!


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## FloridaLuv (Dec 19, 2008)

LOVE this kinda story! Happy ending. GREAT job....loving creatures GREAT and small! Before I read the end I thought the same thing, he was saying wow, all the things I was told about humans wasn't SO! and I think he did say THANK YOU!


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## mr squeaks (Apr 14, 2005)

I completely agree with Jenn! I also think the buzzard/vulture was saying THANKS!

GREAT story and made my day! Thank you so much for posting!

Love and Hugs
Shi


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## maryjane (Jul 15, 2006)

Great job. I especially admire buzzards as they are so huge, and somehow majestic even though they are "ugly".  They are also so important to our ecosystem.


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

Thank you so much for saving this vulture. Your story just made my day because I really love these big old guys a lot. We took care of two little babies several years ago and I fell for them then. 

We recently had six or seven land in our back yard which is very unusual. We feed crows and hawks and I guess they saw the hawks eating and decided to check it out in case it was road kill. And, again,yesterday morning, my husband called me to the window and there was a single one in the yard with his wings spread out like an angel. When my husband opened the door he lifted off and gracefully flew away. They are awesome to look at.

I worry about all birds during ice storms but would never have thought their wings would freeze like that. Their wing span is so great that I guess he didn't realize they were freezing either. LOL, just something else to worry about. I have heard of their feet freezing to a branch - especially the small songbirds.


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## amyable (Jul 7, 2007)

That is such a brilliant story. Well done for working out how to help it and yes, for sure it was thanking you.

Maybe you can set up a deal with it not to bother any of your pigeons in return. 

Janet


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## conditionfreak (Jan 11, 2008)

amyable: I don't think vultures or buzzasrds (I believe they are two different names for the same birds) eat anything alive. Only dead stuff. That is actually a wonderful gift to the earth. Imagine if they didn't.

Lady Tarheel: What does one feed to hawks in the back yard? I am curious.


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

conditionfreak said:


> amyable: I don't think vultures or buzzasrds (I believe they are two different names for the same birds) eat anything alive. Only dead stuff. That is actually a wonderful gift to the earth. Imagine if they didn't.
> 
> Lady Tarheel: What does one feed to hawks in the back yard? I am curious.


We feed them raw hamburger, cooked chicken, any leftover meat. They will also eat canned dog food and if they are very hungry will eat soaked dry dog food that we put out for the crows.

They ate high on the hog (so to speak) a couple months ago. We went to a wedding luncheon where they served thick filet mignon and since I had just had some implants put in my mouth, I couldn't eat mine so we fed it to the hawks the next day . Of course they loved it.


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