Of Blood and Buzzards

Well, on my second day back to work from being totally incapacitated from the flu and bronchitis, I was given the assignment of covering the annual return of the buzzards to Hinckley, OH. The swallows have Capistrano. Daytona Beach has their college students. We have turkey buzards.

Basically what happens, is that every March 15th, the obsessed, the insane(read the media) and the naturalists show up to the Buzzard's Roost to see the "first" turkey buzzard show up from a long "migration".

(Psssssssst...little secret here. Some never leave. They have these great little nests built in rock ledges and decide that they'd really like to stay)

But we hearty fools go along with the guise. Plus, we get donuts and coffee and sometimes a really nice pair of cheap binoculars. It's all about the freebies.

Well, at 4 AM this morning, I show up at the Buzzard's Roost...alone. In a metropark teeming with dangerous animals (ie Deer). It's really peaceful. It's clear. And then it occurs to me, it's freaking cold. As of our air-time, it was 13 degrees. Plus, I forgot I was scheduled to do this, so I forgot to wear the long johns. Yeah...there was frost on the twig and berries.

Anyways, the day started off with my audio going completely to crap two minutes before my hit. Well, they floated me one package while I jury-rigged a concoction of hard wires back to the truck. My talkback guest was totally cool with this. But, it's frustrating. The perils of a one man band.

The control room is constantly calling on the IFB for bump shots. Look genuises back there, it's 5:30am. It's dark. There are only two people here...me and the metroparks PR person. WTF am I going to shoot???? The dark??? A dark tree?? A picnic bench?? I yell back into the mic about the obvious and get, "Oh yeah..sorry."

Well at 6:15 it's getting a little light and my second subject shows up. He's the naturalist who is the "official" buzzard spotter. Well, my talkback guy is holding the tip of his nose as he comes over. I think, runny nose. Nope...he's bleeding like a stuck pig from the tip of his nose. Seems he ran his gloved hand under his nose, and a edge of the velcro on it nipped the tip. Well, getting cut there, it will bleed profusely, because of the thinness of the skin and proximity of blood vessels near the skin. Plus it's cold and it's not clotting.

I run to the truck to get him some gauze and a band-aid for him, but no band-aids are in there...just my luck. Now, I have to shoot an interview with him while he's bleeding. Thank GOD for b-roll. I panned off him, up to the sky, the trees, the fire barrels and all this time, he's talking and turning his back to the camera. I try to get him turn around to face the camera. Well, he won't. So the contol room won't come back to me because all I have it the back of his head to show. I get crap for this after the shot is over. I snap zoom into the guy's face and get.."Oh..yuck" in my IFB.

Well, before I make this any longer than necessary, one buzzard shows up at 8:43am like "magic". Almost like it was released from a cage in the woods..hmmmm.

Well, getting OT for birdwatching isn't all that bad...but I'll wear the long johns next year..and bring band-aids.