I opened the shades yesterday and gasped at the sight of a black bird with a 6-foot wingspan coming in for a landing in my front yard. It was about 3 feet from my flowerbed when it caught a wind current and began coasting down the street. Then I saw it abruptly tip sideways just in time to avoid being hit by a car. I lost sight of it as it disappeared behind some shrubs.
I had a pretty good idea what it was, so I grabbed my camera and ran outside in case it came back. A few minutes later it reappeared. It was soaring much higher now above our neighbor’s silver maple.
My suspicions were correct. It was a turkey vulture. I’ve seen them in rural areas, state parks and occasionally circling over our city, but I’ve never seen one that close to the ground before. It was a spectacular sight.
Turkey vultures rarely flap their wings which is why it was pretty easy to identify this coasting bird. They have an amazing sense of smell that helps them detect their major source of food—carrion.
Too bad they don’t haul away live rabbits or we’d be fast friends.
