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Writer's pictureThomas Bennedetto

March 15th - Buzzards Day

Today is Buzzards Day, and can I just say scavenging birds are so misinterpreted and underrated. While unlike vultures, buzzards prefer fresh meat like mice (sorry Maxwell) and voles, they will scavenge if they gotta. And humans should be more glad about it then they are. Scavenging birds are nature's janitors, and like human janitors they don't get half the respect they deserve.


This next part might be a bit macabre but it's worth saying, so if you don't want to hear about death or decay stop here. Preparation of the dead is a largely human practice, and in nature you are eaten or you decay. I think if I was a creature in nature I'd prefer to be consumed by another vertebrae animal as opposed to being gored by insects, bacteria, fungi and time. If I didn't live in a world where I'm hopefully going to be cremated and turned into a gemstone someday after I'm done, I'd rather the birds get me than the flies.


[EDITOR’S NOTE: No offense taken, Tom. All part of nature. Also, ever heard of Sky Burial?]


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6 Comments


Kris
Mar 16, 2023

I've always wanted to do a sky burial when I die, if it's open practice. Let my body become food for the earth, y'know? Also, as Mouse pointed out, happy Ides of March—if I get stabbed by buzzards in the back 32 times, let me decay naturally.

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Thomas Bennedetto
Thomas Bennedetto
Mar 16, 2023
Replying to

Not a bad way to go after you're gone. And, not to be too macabre, but I'm sure the animals like it. As for ides of March, to be honest I was over at the Finch house today and Joey decided to celebrate by attacking me and David with a plastic lightsaber

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yellomad
yellomad
Mar 15, 2023

i like buzzards, they get a bad rep the same way hyenas do i think. theyre just little dudes

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Thomas Bennedetto
Thomas Bennedetto
Mar 16, 2023
Replying to

Indeed. Hyenas are definitely underrated well. Most of the time their status as scavengers or their laugh-like calls are the focus when they are mentioned. Their mixed and often negative reputations go back centuries, but in modern pop culture, the lion king movies probably didn't help with fixing that reputation. In nature they are like, the "girlboss" dog looking mongoose, and some species of hyena are known to play dead like possums.

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Mouse
Mouse
Mar 15, 2023

I realize that one could also use the buzzard stereotype to make some sort of comment about today being the Ides of March, when Julius Caesar was infamously killed in the Senate.


[Doesn't do that]

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Thomas Bennedetto
Thomas Bennedetto
Mar 16, 2023
Replying to

I'll probably explain cesser salads next year

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