The Black Vulture

We always thought they were called turkey buzzards. We were walking through the neighborhood park when out of the blue this huge black bird flew on to the fence right in front of us. Of course I whipped out my phone and started taking photos - and a video - of him. The wing span was very wide and he looked like he was trying to dry them off - he was holding them out and moving them back and forth. He knew we were there and we were hoping he wouldn’t get any ideas and start coming towards us. After a bit he flew up in to the tree branch with a whopping whooshing noise. He stayed up there for quite some time, still holding his wings out. A while ago I had downloaded the Cornell Lab Merlin bird app. You can learn about and identify a bird by simply listening to the song or you can upload a photo and it will tell you all about it. So I uploaded one of the images of the bird and it immediately came back as a black vulture. It said they soar in flocks often with other hawks - which we have also frequently seen in the park. But this one was alone. They like roadkill and dumpsters. I suppose we should be thankful someone does. Anyway, it was a treat to see this huge raptor so close up. You never know what you might run in to.