Nature and Small Observations

Turkey vultures are not pretty creatures to look at up close and personal, but I think they are seriously cool birds.

Today I was walking back from the other office and a turkey vulture soared overhead, perhaps sixty or seventy feet above ground. A beautiful, graceful sweep of wings and then a long glide in a slow serpentine line. Just wonderful to watch. I tried to find a video of one soaring so I could post it here, but the vulture is far more graceful than the camera work that I found so I settled for a picture.

As I was watching the vulture I saw a redtail hawk sweeping across the road with a mouse in its beak. It landed in an oak tree in an open field where, I guess, it was going to enjoy its lunch.

A wonderful day for bird watching, and I am not even a bird watching fan because, around here, it seems that most of what we have are crows.

Now crows have their points but they're not pretty or graceful. They're big and rather clumsy (have you ever watched a crow land?). They're loud-mouthed and a bit boorish. If they're annoyed, they make a big fuss. They gather in gangs called 'murders' and make a bunch of noise about it. Boorish behavior in my opinion.

Back to the vultures. Sometimes I see them in the early morning when I'm driving to work. If it's cold they'll perch on the top of telephone poles or on fence posts and hang out in vulture-like fashion. It's something I always find interesting to see. And I hesitated there. Is it beautiful? No, not really. After all they're just doing this:

Catchin' some rays because, after all, this is California.

The other day I saw a pretty robin checking out the olives that have fallen off the tree we have outside our back door. He saw me through the window and took off. Most of the robins we see around here are dull in color, a burnished, faded orange, like this guy:

 instead of the bright orange I usually think of when I think 'robin'. This guy had a beautiful color, darker brown on top and a vibrant orange underneath, like this:

Perhaps he's a juvenile? Maybe it was the angle of the sun and quality of the light? I don't know, but he sure was pretty.

Even though I don't get out in the country, much, I am lucky to have the chance to go outside and walk around and see these guys doing their thing. In fact, thinking of that, I think I'm going to take another walk.

See ya!

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories