Backyard and Beyond

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!”