Tuesday, October 10, 2000

Famed buzzard was belle of Baron’s ball

By Bill Whitaker

By the time October 2000 is over, we will have seen two international figures visit Abilene — former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and a celebrity buzzard named “Oscar.”

Of the pair, Oscar has probably circled over more projects of genuine interest to Texans, including soaring with the band ZZ Top during its rollicking worldwide tour in the 1970s.

Oscar flew in just the other night, too, roosting in the wings at the Expo Center, greeting folks at the Cattle Baron’s Ball and helping raise money for the American Cancer Society.

Owner and trainer Ralph Fisher, 56, insisted his fine-feathered friend was well trained enough not to start circling over selected partygoers, though the 32-year-old black vulture did have mighty strong temptations that evening, including Ronnie Ingle’s brisket nearby.

And, as Fisher concedes, Oscar is proof you can never know too much about your friends.

“You know, I thought Oscar was a male for years,” Fisher told me. “And then, when he was 17, he laid an egg and we discovered he was a she. But we’d been calling her Oscar for so long, it was kind of late to go back and change it.”

So Oscar the Buzzard still responds to her name, however unladylike.

Fisher, a one-time rodeo clown who also brought his beloved, immaculately cloned bull Second Chance to Saturday’s benefit party as well as a longhorn steer, admits Oscar the Buzzard has more starring credits than the rest of his Texas animals combined.

Oscar has been in several movies, including “Two for Texas” (1997), an epic about the Alamo starring Kris Kristofferson. Oscar’s big moment came after the battle was done and corpses littered the hallowed grounds.

“We have pictures of Oscar sitting on Kris Kristofferson’s head, but that wasn’t in the movie,” Fisher said. “I had to climb this plastic façade of the Alamo and put Oscar up at the top. She kind of stood perched there, flapping her wings and looking anxiously over the dead. She even got some close-ups.”

Oscar’s most exciting stint may have been touring with ZZ Top during the band’s global tour in the mid-1970s. Fisher rented the band Oscar and another buzzard (also named Oscar), a buffalo, a longhorn, an armadillo and some rattlers, then traveled along as their handler.

And, yes, Fisher insists American Humane Association guidelines were followed, to the extent the buzzards were placed atop cow skulls well behind the speakers so ZZ Top’s blaring music didn’t blow all their feathers off.

Although the black vulture is today regarded as a species rating special protection and handling, Fisher has been permitted by state officials to keep Oscar, owing to the fact he’s had her so long. He takes no money for Oscar’s gigs and uses her mostly to stage wildlife seminars.

“She and I go back a long way,” the La Grange resident said fondly. “You know, I got this old buzzard in ‘68 on my honeymoon, back when she was just a chick.”

For the record, Fisher’s relationship with Oscar lasted longer than his marriage.

Contact associate editor Bill Whitaker at 676-6732 or whitakerb@abinews.com. Check out Bill’s previous columns at www.brazosbill.com.