Attached is a picture of an investment planner at A.I.G - fortunately not ours. (Actually, the bird landed in a tree at the Gibson reunion.) I did our yearly meet with our I.P. to see if we needed to start selling off our major organs. I told him that I didn't want to be sitting in my rocking chair at age 95 knitting my own underwear.
Back to the bird: Jerry said it was a Georgia vulture. A "Coragyps atratus" or Black Vulture, it has a wing span of 57 inches and is 25 inches long. Our Turkey Vultures of up north, have red heads and are larger. Both are pretty darn ugly. The Black Vulture is common in open country and near human settlements where it scavenges in garbage dumps. The reunion's camp/park site fit that description. It is gregarious and aggressive and like all vultures, it eats carrion (dead stinky stuff). They perform nature's clean-up detail. The trick is not to scare them or make them mad as they defend themselves by throwing up on you. Oh, yeah, aggressive and throw up dead stinky stuff - there was a reason I used my zoom lens!
Speaking of birds, on a more pleasant note, I've seen big flocks of red winged blackbirds - a sure sign of spring. I haven't had any robins in my yard but have seen them elsewhere. Hope they all have their nests completed because they are predicting from 3-7 inches of snow tomorrow evening. Weatherman said to cover anything green - I thought that was amazingly clueless. Except for the crocus blossoms, it will be fine.
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