Belled Buzzards
Beginning sometimes during the 19th century and into the 20th century, stories of belled buzzards roamed throughout the communities nestled in the Appalachians. The phenomena of seeing (and hearing) belled buzzards doesn’t actually involve buzzards at all, well not really. Instead the birds reported to be seen were likely turkey vultures. The belled part? Well, it was said someone was tying bells around the necks of these large birds. How? And why? Let’s find out.
Unsurprisingly, these beasts birds were often seen as harbingers of doom. Perhaps Mothman was inspired by them to warn West Virginians (and just forgot about the bell part). In particular, the bell around the buzzard's neck tolls to signal the upcoming death of a notable person in the area where the buzzard is sighted. According to lore, the sighting of a belled buzzard in Taylorsville caused one field hand to flee in terror as he believed the sight was an omen of a deadly tornado.
But how were the bells affixed? Were they simply ghostly appraitions sent from the gods as warning? Was it a prank gone wrong? A thread? Or, just a strange twist of fate?
Perhaps a mix, because in 1882 there was a pet bird of a family in Freeman in Paulding Country. One day, the farmer’s children decided to attach a sheep bell to one of the bird’s legs. Why? Who knows -- maybe for fun or out of boredom or just to see if they could. Either way, when the bird heard the noise it made it got spooked and flew away. It is said this same bird laded on the roof of a sharecropper’s cabin. When those inside heard the ringing, they rushed outside to hear the strange noise. They thought the large black bird was a harbringer of death warning them of impending doom and they fled.
Over the years, various people joined in and many claimed that they had started the belled buzzard craze. Others admitted to joining in to see if they could get coverage or prank a neighbor. Like many popular stories of the strange and unexplained, it seems there may be a mix of genuine coincidence, accident, and, of course, pranks.
None the less, the belled buzzard is said to have appeared before natural disasters, the deaths of paragons in the community, and the outbreak of disease is various communities throughout Appalachia. Stories and sightings came to crawl in the early part of the 19th century.
In the 1920s, The Graham Daily reported that the Belled Buzzard was back! “The exact location at the bird has not been established, but those who desire to hear the beautiful music given out daily can communicate with the Mayor of that Town who keeps informed on all events worth chronicling.” Similar to the lore that the belled buzzard was a harbinger of doom, the first sighting of it in sometime in Graham took place during another somber moment. The paper continues, “Along with the appearance the belled-buzzard comes the news that a strange lights can be seen on the hills near the town of Richlands, and the opinion prevails among some of the people of that town, and some in other towns, that, this strange light is the reappearance in that community of the spirits of the seven colored men who were lynched hear Richlands some thirty years ago. It is said that these spirits return annually, and the mysterious light can be seen on the mountain north of Richlands every spring.”
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