Yeah, we all know that Cleveland Metroparks has to make it official when the first turkey vultures - a.k.a. "buzzards" - return to Northeast Ohio.

That is always when an "official" spotter makes it, well, official that the savaging birds have returned to Hinkley, Ohio for their annual breeding season.

This year the official Buzzard Day watch and festivities is set for Sunday, March 15, the metroparks says.

However, those soaring birds that look only a little like eagles have already begun to show up. At least in Lake County.

They've been spotted flying around The News-Herald (please no death jokes) as well as above Mentor and other points east and south.

Which should not come as too much of a surprise. The carrion-eating fowl typically don't fly too far south for the winter, and it doesn't take much for them to return north.

And while we're talking about wild wings, my wife, Bev, and I saw an actual snow goose among a large flock of Canada geese at the juncture of Footville-Richmond Road and Rt. 534 in Ashtabula County's Trumbull Township.

I've seen enough (and shot enough) snow geese to know this wasn't a swan or a domesticated goose, either.

That, plus we were less than 50 yards away confirmed that it was snow goose, which is an infrequent visitor to these parts.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
jfrischkorn@news-herald.com