Silverware Thief

One Vulture

I did a double-take. I had just set out on my bike ride and wasn’t even a half mile from the house when I passed the old burned out house and the abandoned barn. As my gaze slid across the barn I half registered something different. Strange shapes–almost like huge bird statues–wait, there is nothing like that on the barn roof. That is when I did the double take. What looked like huge bird statues?

Huge birds, of course. With my second look I realized three turkey vultures were perched on top of the barn. The sight was particularly arresting because the birds were holding the horaltic pose (standing in a spread winged stance) which made them appear brooding and almost threatening.

My first reaction was, “Hey, that’s cool!” My second reaction was, “I wish I had brought my camera.”

Horaltic pose

I decided I would just hope they were still on the barn roof when I came back, and rode on. As I rode I realized they surely wouldn’t still be there by the time I finished my bike ride so if I didn’t go back and get my camera now I wouldn’t get any pictures. Oh well, I thought, and continued riding. Then I got to the top of the next hill and decided, no, I didn want pictures bad enough to turn around and get my camera now.

So I did. The birds weren’t poised as dramatically by the time I got back and at first they weren’t even holding the horaltic pose. I hung around for a bit and they went back to their dramatic stance. I snapped what pictures I could, but without a powerful zoom lens for my camera I couldn’t get very good photographs.

Nonetheless, it was very cool for the vultures which are normally only seen at a distance in the sky to come down and pose on a barn roof. No doubt if there was a more superstitious lot, it would have been taken as a very bad omen indeed.