signs of spring

[dragonlady7]

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bomberqueen17 https://bomberqueen17.tumblr.com/post/645323411963428864/signs-of-spring:

Mom texted the family groupchat today all excited. “Vultures circling the barn!” she wrote.

Sounds ominous, but, no– 1) Turkey vultures are migratory and don’t return to our area until spring. 2) Specifically, for some reason, there are several turkey vultures who like our barn. 2a) not to roost in, no. That’s not what they do on the barn roof.

I texted back, “Put Love Shack on the jukebox,” and my mom wrote back with a winky emoji, which I did not know she knew how to use.

Flash back about, hm, how old am I now… okay probably about twenty-five years ago, now. We’re sitting in the back porch sunroom, recently renovated into a pleasant lounging-space, no longer the mudroom it was for my early childhood. There’s a view of the barn from the back porch, which you can’t see from other rooms of the house.

Mom leaps up. She is something of a birdwatcher, and likes to observe the winged critters around the house. She exclaims, she has seen big wings out by the barn. She grabs the binoculars. There’s a vulture on the barn roof! There are– more than one vulture on the barn roof! She manages to get an unobstructed view. All us kids are sitting up in great interest, waiting to find out what she sees.

The vultures are– there’s flapping, but they’re– perched? there are – there are two of them– they’re —

oh, mom says.

“What?” we all ask.

Well, Mom admits, now we know where the vultures go to make more vultures.

Anyway she’s been watching ever since and they come back every year. We don’t know where they nest, but we sure know where they fuck.

I think I have different associations with what vultures are an omen of than most people.

Mom just texted the inevitable follow-up, with the next sign of spring, which was a photograph of the back of her hand with a tick on it.

“Well,” she wrote, “spring has definitely sprung.” (Your picture was not posted)

Comments

[krait]

Ahahahaha! Love shack for vultures... well, I guess "love nest" is also an English phrase for a reason. "Love barn" not so much, but it sounds like your vultures are trying. :D

I also have a Funny Vulture Story, though I think yours tops it.

I interned at a wildlife rehab center, and one of the volunteers apparently put out raw chicken at her home to feed a couple of vultures, who showed up every day for their treat. (...Look, eccentric rich ladies do things like this, that's all I've got.) One day she was late coming home because of traffic, and missed the usual vulture snacktime by quite a bit. When she arrived, there were 14 vultures lined up on the roof! She said she'd worried the neighbours probably thought someone had died in the house. :D

[dragonlady7]

oh, to be an eccentric old lady with chicken to give to vultures......

That's so funny, I wonder if all along it really had been that many vultures and she just usually only saw a couple at a time as they came and went. Surely that must be the case.