Grounded

I've lived in California for over 15 years now, and I've always enjoyed seeing the California Turkey buzzards. My most common experience seeing them has been in the tops of the Eucalyptus trees that surround the convalescent home. In some macabre way they seemed to be waiting for someone to die. ;) But in the past month I have only seen them on the ground! I think it is really weird, and I can't understand why I'm seeing them on the ground instead of the trees. Today Sally and I walked by three big ones at the Reservoir. One was sunning it's wings and had them widely outspread. Sally was VERY interested. The wind today is very strong, so I thought maybe that was why they are on the ground, but that doesn't explain the other 2 times I've seen them on the ground. Weird. By the way, most of the water fowl at the reservoir were on the water instead of in the air. There were a couple of pelicans playing in the wind currents, but most of the birds chose to stay grounded. My neighbor checked in the night online to see how high the winds were, and at one point they were 50 mph. Right now they are only 20. Only.....