Squawk, squawk: Today is Vulture Awareness Day

It's come to our notice that the first Saturday in September is Vulture Awareness Day, and so we're happy to do our bit in raising said awareness of our fave flying animal. Loads of participating organisations worldwide have swooped down on this central feeding point, and they'll be doing their bit to fly the flag for winged …

[Will Godfrey]

What can one say?

But is this just a flight of fancy?

[WalterAlter]

Buzzards?

Do they count? We got lots of buzzards here circling over the highways, blitzing the road kill, dining fresh, winging away from the 18 wheelers bearing down on possum filet and raccoon au two lane blacktop. But them Pharoahs in ancient Egypt had the vulture gig right down Santa Claus lane...

"Egypt’s oldest oracle was the shrine of Nekhbet at Nekheb, the original necropolis or city of the dead. The priestesses of Nekhbet were called muu (mothers) and wore robes of Egyptian vulture feathers. In art, Nekhbet was depicted as a vulture. Alan Gardiner identified the species that was used in divine iconography as a griffon vulture. Arielle P. Kozloff, however, argues that the vultures in New Kingdom art, with their blue-tipped beaks and loose skin, better resemble the lappet-faced vulture. Nekhbet usually was depicted hovering, with her wings spread above the royal image, clutching a shen symbol (representing eternal encircling protection).

[ukgnome]

Thank you for not mercilessly mocking me when I sent the news item in before checking El reg.

[Anonymous Coward]

That may just be because they're late in replying, though :)

[Unicornpiss]

Vultures...

Vultures are graceful and powerful in flight, hideous to look at, and deal with unspeakable, disgusting messes that most of the populace doesn't even want to be near. Sounds like the perfect avatar for a lot of IT workers and an IT site in general. Here's to vultures! :P

[Mark 85]

Re: Vultures...

Excellent analogy. Even better than the one I've been using, to wit: "We're glorified janitors in that we clean up other peoples messes (or shitte if I'm in a bad mood)".

[Martin Gregorie]

It strikes me as odd that...

...an ornithologist I met in India, who was there to study vultures, knew next to nothing about their flight performance or how they operated in the sky, though she was an expert on their species and breeding habits.

As far as I know, the first study of how African vultures flew and searched for carrion was made by Philip Wills, a well-known British glider pilot, in 1936. He flew with them extensively and was able to deduce just how good their eyesight was from their preferred flying height and the way they spaced themselves out over the veldt. - "On Being A Bird", Philip Wills pp-26-28.

[Electron Shepherd]

Re: It strikes me as odd that...

...an ornithologist ... who was there to study vultures, knew next to nothing about their flight performance or how they operated in the sky

Doesn't seem odd to me. I quite often study something I know next to nothing about, so that afterwards I know something about it.

though she was an expert on their species and breeding habits

She probably got that way by studying their species and breeding habits (before moving on to study some other aspect of them).

[WatAWorld]

Re: It strikes me as odd that...

My thoughts:

It is a lot easier and faster for a biologist (including ornithologists) to research coloring, breeding habitats and anatomical form than eyesight and gliding techniques.

One involves doing research to evaluate on the basis of things they've studied for years already.

For the other, she'd have to learn about aeronautics and fluid flow mechanics, which would first mean taking a couple of intermediate and advanced calculus courses.

All things being equal, when you want to a paper churned out fast, to get you or your student MSc or Phd, you pick something fast and easy to research that is not too big a stretch.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It strikes me as odd that...

knew next to nothing about their flight performance

I swear there is practically nothing left of the English language that doesn't trigger some Monty Python flashback, grin (thankfully). Yes, you do want to watch this, even though you've probably seen The Search for the Holy Grail a hundred times by now...

[Anonymous Coward]

23 species of vulture.

You should probably qualify that as the bird kind, PPI scum, ambulance chasers etc. bump that number considerably.

[WatAWorld]

Re: 23 species of vulture.

Good point.

But even ambulance chasing lawyers, the most publicity seeking 'vulturine' of legal professionals, don't remove stop signs, push pedestrians under cars, or describe publish instructions on how to commit vandalism of safety systems. They don't come anywhere near to touching the worst of our profession.

Off hand I'd say the top 3 vultures are killer cops, peacekeeping troops who commit war crimes and crimes against humanity, and pedophile priests. The worst of IT security professionals are somewhere in the top 10. Ambulance chasing lawyers not even in the top 10.

The worst vultures are those who not only prey on innocents, but who do this by being some variety of traitor against their own profession and against their own people.

Common criminals commit crimes. Viscous criminals prey on innocents. Exceptional criminals become traitors doing both those things plus want a medal or fame or to be exulted.

I need a beer, I'm getting too serious.

[VeganVegan]

Endangered species

I saw a California condor in the wild many years ago, before they captured all remaining 20 odd birds and put them in a zoo for captive breeding, to try to save the species.

What a magnificent beast it was, one could easily have mistaken it for a small gilder plane. It must have glided a mile or more, riding the thermals, before it twitched its wings a bit, and went in a slightly different direction.

Here's a link for a vulture smile: http://www.gocomics.com/theargylesweater/2008/09/23

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Endangered species

Condors are out in the wild again. I've seen them here and there near the Colorado River.

[Dr_N]

Diclofenac poisoning

Wouldn't happen if we all fed them Parsi style....

[Tom Womack]

Re: Diclofenac poisoning

Diclofenac use is hardly unusual in the prone-to-die elderly - it's the normal prescription for osteoarthritis - and is likely to be no less persistent in human corpses than in cattle.

[Dwarf]

Have a great day out and support conservation at the same time.

Who needs sharks with lasers when you have hawks, buzzards, owls, falcons and balled eagles !

Take a look at the Hawk Conservancy Trust in Andover.

You can just go look around, or you can fly raptors, which is a really great day out and fairly unique. Membership is cheap too. http://www.hawk-conservancy.org/

Penguin as the only bird icon. :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Have a great day out and support conservation at the same time.

balled eagles

Please don't let that be a typo, you owe me screen wipes!

"Look at the bollocks on that eagle ..."

[Dwarf]

Re: Have a great day out and support conservation at the same time.

Oh bollocks !

Good spot.It was late and beer was involved ...

I assume you know that the balled eagle is the less well known and even more endangered cousin of the bald eagle ;-)

Seriously though, perhaps El Reg should do some corporate sponsorship ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Have a great day out and support conservation at the same time.

Given the behavior of my fellow sailors, and apparently our leaders, "a balled eagle" is appropriate.

Now WatAWorld's submission featured "viscous criminals" which has me stumped. Another subspecies of our leadership?

[Anonymous Coward]

Griffin Vultures

I remember seeing Griffin Vultures circling overhead in the Western Sovereign Base Area (WeSBA), Cyprus in the mid '80s. Dad had managed a rather more interesting posting than the usual West Germany/UK combo.

There didn't seem to be much in the way of road kill left lying around for very long. You also kept an eye on your cats and dogs ...

[Anonymous Coward]

OT "0 month"

Just noticed, my post above showed "0 month" in the posting time after submit. On refresh it shows the normal "Just Posted". Weird.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: OT "0 month"

... and the above one showed the date

[Anonymous Coward]

Celebrate the day...

...with a glass of John Crow Batty, or "Vulture's Bum"

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34085397

[Graham Marsden]

I recall hearing a story...

... about a hospital in Africa which had a line of trees in the gardens outside.

These were eventually cut down because of the number of vultures roosting in them...

[xerocred]

The EU banned farmers from leaving dead livestock lying around

for the vultures.

The EU fuckwits are directly responsible for contributing to their plight (in the EU).

[Lester Haines]

Re: The EU banned farmers from leaving dead livestock lying around

Yes. Here in Spain, they're mulling advising farmers to leave carcasses in the open. I don't suppose this perfectly reasonable suggestion will ever actually be implemented .