Jaci Dawn

The bird swooped silently in a circle between my bird feeder and the neighbor’s yard. At first glance, not more than a crow –
but a very large crow.

The light shone through it’s extended wing feathers, feathers unlike any other bird.

“oooh!” I must have exclaimed.

It was beauty. Elegance. Silence.

Ugly up close.

Turkey vulture, low to the ground and seeking dead meat. A squirrel had been run over a few days earlier – it must have scented that.

We stood, mesmerized by the beauty of flight. No other bird flies quite like a turkey vulture: half owl, half large bird of prey. Silent. Acrobatic.

The Ugly Duckling among large birds but perhaps the most graceful.

It landed in a Douglas fir. Then landed on the ground, its head a naked and ugly red of wrinkled flesh. Carrion bird.

No omen, this bird. Just a hunter in an urban landscape. Too many people and cars. It retreated.

Our neighbor came out, just as awed as we were. “What was that?” she called from across the street.

We don’t violate six-foot distances these days, but we call across the street.She thought it a hawk when it swooped by her picture window.

“Turkey vulture!” we called across the street.

We stood in awe, together.

Stock photo from Pixabay