Buzzards — or, more technically, vultures — don't get much respect. Their bare-skinned heads and hideous faces are those only a mother could love. A gourmet meal for them is a rotten possum or a putrefying dead cow. If you threaten them or their babies, they'll regurgitate a foul-smelling mess from their stomachs.

For at least one day of the year, though, vultures do get respect — during the annual "Buzzard Day" festival at Reed Bingham State Park near Adel in southwest Georgia. This year's event was held last weekend, and folks (including myself) came from miles around to show their appreciation of the oft-maligned birds. Were it not for carrion-eating vultures, I know, our woods and roadsides would be unbearably smelly places.

Charles Seabrook / Special (ENLARGE)

Turkey vultures, like this one undergoing rehabilitation, roost by the thousands during the winter at Reed Bingham State Park near Adel.

Charles Seabrook / Special (ENLARGE)

A turkey vulture roosting at Reed Bingham State Park near Adel spreads its wings to warm up from the rising sun's rays before it heads out for a day of foraging for food, mostly carrion.

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The "buzzard" moniker for vultures originated with early English settlers who thought the birds were like the soaring hawks they had called "buzzards" in the Old World.

Two vulture species live in Georgia — the black vulture and the turkey vulture. For longer than most folks around Adel can remember, both species have been congregating by the thousands each winter in and around Reed Bingham, a scenic state park with a 375-acre lake formed by a dam across the beautiful Little River.

"In late afternoon, when the vultures are coming back in to roost for the night, thousands of them circle overhead, filling the sky," said park manager Chet Powell. "It looks almost like a tornado."

They return to the roosts after soaring as high as 10,000 to 20,000 feet on thermal currents all day in search of dead animals and other food. They may cover some 200 miles of South Georgia's countryside each day looking for a meal. Turkey vultures are particularly adept at using the thermals, gracefully soaring for hours on end.

Park personnel and volunteers last weekend took boatloads of folks up the Little River to see the scores of vultures still roosting in late morning on trees lining the riverbank. The birds probably were late in heading out to forage because of a morning fog.

Morning is a good time to observe the birds, especially turkey vultures, which spend much time preening their feathers, stretching and flapping wings and warming up. We saw several of them sitting on limbs and holding their wings out to catch the rising sun's rays.

No one knows for sure why so many vultures choose Reed Bingham for their winter roosting area, said Josh Hart, deputy park director. Many of the park's turkey vultures are winter migrants that will return to nesting grounds up north in spring.

Hart pointed out some differences between the two species:

Turkey vultures, the larger of the two, are common statewide. They have pinkish red heads and longer, narrower, two-toned (black with gray lining) wings that are held in a shallow V-shape when soaring. They feed almost exclusively on carrion, mostly dead mammals.

Black vultures occur in most of Georgia, but rarely in the mountains. Their heads are gray; wings have silvery tips. They are more aggressive and will drive off turkey vultures when feeding on "road kill" or other carrion. They also will prey on small live mammals and reptiles, eat other birds' eggs and feed at garbage dumps.

Reed Bingham has still another avian distinction — the only Georgia state park with nesting bald eagles. Powell took me to see one of the park's two nests last weekend, high in a stately loblolly pine. At least two eaglets, possibly three, were being guarded by their regal mother.

"Since the eagles starting nesting here a few years ago, the vultures have become very wary," said Powell, who witnessed an eagle attack a vulture in midair over the lake last year.

More information on the park: www.gastateparks.org/info/reedbing.

Bird count

This is the weekend of the 11th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, which began on Friday and continues through Monday. You still have today and Monday to count all the birds seen or heard in your yard, neighborhood, school ground or other spot. Spend at least 15 minutes — or all day if you choose — counting the individuals you see in each species.

Report totals at the count's Web site. Information: www.birdcount.org.

In the sky

A total lunar eclipse will be visible in Georgia on Wednesday night beginning at 8:43 p.m. It will be in total eclipse by 10:01 p.m. and end at 12:08 a.m.

If there's a lunar eclipse on Wednesday night, it means that the moon will be full. February's full moon is known as "The Snow Moon" by the Sioux peoples, says Fernbank astronomer David Dundee. Mercury is low in the east just before sunrise. Venus rises out of the east about two hours before sunrise.

Mars is high in the south at about sunset. Jupiter shines brightly in the predawn sky, rising out of the east about two hours before sunrise. Saturn rises out of the east at sunset and will appear close to the moon Wednesday night.