Birds of a feather ... III

Hope you haven't tired of our feathered friends quite yet. While the more gregarious ones were gathered on the pine tree, I noticed a few less sociable, or perhaps ostracized, birds nearby. Careful not to disturb the group just above me, I swung my lens around to capture a great blue heron and a turkey vulture.

Today's interesting fact: vultures often appear to have white legs because they squirt feces onto their legs and feet to cool themselves. Who says reading blogs can't be educational ? Keep that one in mind for your next trivia quiz. And a bonus fact: vultures are related to storks.

Note: I will be MIA for the next number of days as we welcome company. I expect to come visit you in about a week (although I might sneak a peek at comments you leave here ... shhh).

I don't think this spot was very conducive to fishing ...

 and it seems he agrees

 a member of the clean up crew arrives

Clean up crew

Being somewhat migratory 'birds' ourselves, we've noticed some feathered friends down south that we also have in abundance, in season, up north. Lately we've seen, but more often heard, red-winged blackbirds - I expect they'll be heading north around the same time we will be. But we've also seen another bird in large numbers that we saw quite often back home - the turkey vulture, or buzzard as some people call them.

They feed primarily on carrion which they can spot and/or smell from some distance. They have a magnificent wingspan that can reach over 170 cm/67 in. The parental instinct must be strong because vultures have faces that only their mothers could love.

(70-200mm  f11  1/400 sec  ISO200)