By Jack Spaulding

 It’s been many years ago, but a family living close to my town of Moscow, Ind., had what can only be described as a true symbiotic relationship with a flock of buzzards.

The children in the family on the small farm outside of town included several rough and tumble brothers. The family scratched out a meager income from farming a few acres, but their main cash crop was raising chickens for eggs and meat. Tending to the chickens was one of the main chores for the boys, and their duties included feeding, watering and cleaning the chicken barn.

With hundreds of chickens, there always were a few casualties among the huge flock each week. The boys were instructed to take the bodies of dead chickens to the lower pasture to keep the smell of the deteriorating carcasses away from the house. The boys soon learned dragging a sack full of dead chickens to the lower 40 was a real job.

The weekly parade of chicken carcasses to the lower 40 was soon picked up upon by a flock of turkey buzzards. Each week, the buzzards would bide their time, soar overhead and wait patiently for their “take out” to be delivered. When the chicken carcasses hit the ground, the flock of aerial sanitation engineers quickly cleaned up the remains.

Now the boys may have been rough and tumble and maybe a bit unschooled, but never discount their intelligence. Seeing the regular buzzard disposal of the chicken carcasses, the boys “hatched” a plan to simplify the need of packing the dead chickens to the lower pasture.

In the farm’s barn yard was a large, enclosed wire corn crib with a roof and a walk door. The boys thought if they could catch the buzzards, they could keep them in the corn crib as in-house processors of the dead chickens.

In the barn, the boys found some old steel traps with very weak springs. They decided to stake out the steel traps among the dead chickens in the pasture and see if they could catch some of the buzzards.

The plan worked like a charm. The old steel trap springs were so weak they didn’t harm the birds. Once caught by their legs in a trap, the birds couldn’t fly away.

The boys simply threw a gunny sack over the birds and carefully removed the traps. Once transferred to their new home in the big wire corn crib, the buzzards quickly settled in for the long haul and a steady diet of fresh poultry carcasses.

The boys figured about six buzzards should be enough to handle the number of dead chickens each week. To make the birds’ surroundings more comfortable, they boys added a big tree branch for a roost and a large pan of water.

Things went well for a few weeks, but a wire corncrib full of buzzards and their inevitable waste started smelling up the barnyard, and the boys’ mother was not impressed.

The mandate came down, and mom said… “Let the buzzards go!”

With great reluctance, the boys propped open the door of the wire corncrib and released the birds. Freedom is a choice, and the buzzards apparently liked the idea of having someone serve them a steady diet. The birds decided to stay.

The boys still delivered the dead chickens to the lower 40 where the buzzards still dined on them, but the birds liked spending their free time around the house. They perched on the roof of the house and took a special liking to perching on the poles of the clothesline alongside the sidewalk.

There was one benefit of having them close by as it was still the age of the door-to-door salesman. Farm wives usually had to suffer through four or five visits from pesky road salesman each week. Not this household. Walking up the driveway and encountering a half dozen fully grown buzzards roosting on the clothesline poles spreading and fanning their wings was enough to put even the most determined salesman to flight.

From then on, the boys’ mother was much more accepting of the “family birds.”

Thunder Over Patoka fireworks

Patoka Lake is hosting its 16th annual Thunder Over Patoka fireworks display at Patoka Lake beach, July 2 at 10 p.m. The display can also be viewed from the section C viewing area in the 300-loop of the modern campground for individuals camping at Patoka.

Music themed to the event will be played on WITZ-FM 104.7, at witzamfm.com or from WITZ- FM’s smartphone app. The beach is expected to fill quickly, so plan to arrive early to secure a spot. Beach concessions will be open.

The entrance fee of $7 per vehicle for Indiana residents and $9 for out-of-state vehicles is required for the Newton-Stewart State Recreation Area, located north of Wickliffe on State Road 164. For more information regarding the program or other interpretive events, call the Nature Center at 812-685-2447. Patoka Lake (on.IN.gov/patokalake) is at 3084 N. Dillard Road, Birdseye, IN 47513.

Flora field days

Want to work on your flora identification skills? Here is a chance to practice with a naturalist. Field day emphasis is on the proper use and application of an ID key, which opens the door to identifying thousands of species. The naturalist will work with each attendee based on their prior experience. If you’ve never worked with flower ID before, this is a great way to learn. If you have prior experience, it is a fun way to practice your skills and maybe add some new blooms to your life list. The class is free and is recommended for ages 12 and older. The course will take approximately two hours.

Sign up for July 5, 9:30 a.m., at Monroe Lake’s Stillwater-Northfork Waterfowl Resting Area. Register at bit.ly/florafield-jul2022 by July 3.

Volunteer workday at Monroe Lake

The signs for three new hiking trails at Monroe Lake’s Fairfax State Recreation Area plus additional signage to improve trail markings on the existing trail have arrived. There are more than 50 wooden signs needing to be painted before their installation. We welcome assistance from 1-3 p.m. on July 13; you don’t need to stay for the full two hours. Please wear old clothes you can get paint on and bring a water bottle. The project is limited to volunteers ages 14 and up. Sign up by July 10 at: bit.ly/volunteer-7-13-22.

Readers can contact the author by writing to this publication, or e-mail at jackspaulding@hughes.net. Spaulding’s books, “The Best Of Spaulding Outdoors” and “The Coon Hunter And The Kid,” are available from Amazon.com as a paperback or Kindle download.