Two and a half hours in Green-Wood this morning, and not a single raptor sighting. That’s unusual for a winter day.
As I was walking home, a block away from the southern edge of the cemetery, I heard a Raven croaking. I turned to see it heading towards Green-Wood. Because I’d turned around, I saw a kettle of big birds swirling over the next avenue down the hill, to the west. Seven Turkey Vultures, with a few pilot-fish gulls, probably Herring, in the mix. And then a Cooper Hawk cut right overhead, heading south.
Once home, warming tortillas, I noticed a Red-tailed Hawk perched on the 40th St. antenna. 
But back to the vultures. They’ve been seen in dribs and drabs over Brooklyn in the last month. Mostly Turkey, with a few Black. 
On Thursday, a Turkey Vulture flew low enough for me to capture the red face of a mature bird and the curl of the primaries.
Yes, a Valentine’s Vulture! This is a tuliptree, not a cherry, but a haiku does suggest itself:
A midwinter day,
Vulture floating overhead ~
“Yo, I’m not dead yet!”
Matthew, FYI, Animal Planet , Bronx Zoo show The Zoo (now) A peregrine falcon, found at the base of a skyscraper in N.Y.C., is returned to a nesting site and siblings on another skyscraper after a health check at the zoo. The show repeats tonight at midnight .Thought you might enjoy.
Thanks! I’ll look it up. Hadn’t heard about this before.
third picture– the low flying vulture–is stunning. everything about it is bird.
Plus V-shaped dihedral wings for Valentine’s Day!