In an article I just read about turkey vultures roosting on a water tower in a local town (their defecation is so acidic it actually corrodes the paint), it says "A group of vultures is called a venue...Vultures circling in the air are a kettle." We've gone through the various group-of-animals words before (i.e a pride of lions), but I've never heard of multiple names for different types of groupings of the same animal.
Anyone know any other examples of this?

I wuz thinkin' of a "kettle of fish" and a "school of fish" but I think that the "kettle" one is not an aggregate term but rather a true description of fish in a cooking pot.

I think geese come in differntly named groups depending on what they happen to be doing at the moment. They're a gaggle on the ground and a skein flying.

Swans, when they are on the ground or in the water, are a bevy, a herd, a game or a bank. When in the air, they are a wedge.

it says "A group of vultures is called a venue...Vultures circling in the air are a kettle."

I've heard of a wake of buzzards or vultures, W'ON. And a "viewing" would make more sense to me than a "venue", i.e. viewing in the sense of:

A watch over the body of a deceased person before burial, sometimes accompanied by festivity. Also called viewing.

Not saying the author of the article you are reading is wrong. "Kettle" just sounds a little 'fishy'. :)

http://snipurl.com/gsem

Oops! I stand corrected, W'ON. Your author is correct. A kettle is another name for a wake of vultures.

Groups of vultures spiraling upward to gain altitude are called "kettles". As vultures catch thermal updrafts they take on the appearance of water boiling in a pot – hence the name kettle. Turkey vultures have been reported by aircraft pilots to rise to as high as 20,000 feet and soar for hours without flapping their wings.

http://snipurl.com/gseq