Glendive, MT....

The swallows return to Capistrano and the Vultures return to Hinckley like clockwork every year. But the excitement of those events is more than matched by the yearly return of the Buzzards to Makoshika (ma-KO-shi-ka) State Park in Glendive, Montana.

Crowds gather from 100s of miles away to watch for the appearance of the omnivorous birds who find this semi-arid country a great place to spend the summer.

June 9, 2007, marks the 18^th annual Buzzard Day celebration in this eastern Montana town of 2500. The whole town gets involved in the celebration, including the Kiwanians who prepare their much-anticipated "Buzzard Burger" (Ornithologists need not be concerned, however; no buzzards are harmed in the preparation of the meal.) Visitors also can look forward to the Vulture Variety Show that showcases talent from all over the Montana/North Dakota region.

In addition to those events, there are "games, demonstrations and fun for the entire family," says Carrie Sokoloski, secretary of the Friends of Makoshika State Park. Events include fun runs, a geology field trip, balloon-launchings, a Volksmarch event, disc golfing (also known as "folfing"), a fossil dig and horse-drawn wagon rides. To round out the day, there will be a Shuffle Bums, a Bozeman, MT blues band.

The Turkey Buzzard is officially known as cathartes aura, which is Latin for "cleansers of the air." They begin arriving in the Glendive area in late April and their chicks begin to hatch from late May to early June. Both mom and dad spend much of their days searching for food , which they bring back to the nest and serve up in (ahem) pre-digested form for the fledglings. It's time now to dispel a myth about Turkey Buzzards made famous by so many spaghetti Westerns-When you see them circling slowly overhead, there's no need to fear that they are waiting for you to keel over. They're actually just "catching a thermal" (a rising current of warm air) and relaxing as they ride it up thousands of feet in the air.

"Kind of like lying on a rubber raft in your pool," according to Ryan Sokoloski, Park Manager of Makoshika State Park, which is Montana's largest state park.

Glendive is also part of the Montana Dinosaur Trail and has two museums donated to paleontology and an extensive collection of fossils at Makoshika Park's Visitor Center. For Western history enthusiasts, the Frontier Gateway Museum has been expanded recently and features artifacts, photos and machinery from the past two centuries.

All-in-all, Glendive will be a great place to be as excited attendees celebrate the annual return of the turkey buzzards.

For more information about Buzzard Day and Makoshika State Park, visit their website at: http://fwp.mt.gov/mtoutdoors/HTML/articles/2003/makoshika.htm or call 406-377-MAKO

Submitted by Jim Schaefer, Custer Country Montana.