Buzzards--or really, turkey vultures

We recently returned from Bennett Springs, a wonderful old state park in Southern Missouri I've been visiting for over half a century...it's magical.

This time my poor husband got sick, so I wandered around between checking on him, sketching and delighting in the perfect fall weather.  While the chicken soup I'd made him simmered, I made one last foray to the trout stream near our cabin.  I'd intended to go elsewhere, but as I turned on the tiny park road I noticed dozens of turkey vultures perched in the trees, and turned around to find a place to park!  I scrambled down the bank and found a place to sit beside the crystalline water.

It was amazing to be that close to these big scavengers--one flew up the river at eye level, not 10 feet from me!

This is a popular trout stream, usually busy with fly fishermen; they clean their catch upstream, and these big birds do important work, cleaning up the offal that would otherwise clog the waterways.  They're graceful and almost prehistoric, and always a thrill to see up close...by the time I left it was getting dark and there were many, many more birds perched in this tree and others nearby.

Click on the title of this post for more about these amazing birds...