On 8/8/13, it poured down in the morning. Around 1 pm, I looked out the patio door and this is what we saw on the pole (utility/telephone) in the backyard (in the corner of the yard). The bird was trying to dry out. He/she was standing on the pole and would turn around in a circle while the wings were stretched out. It would stand awhile in each position when he/she took a quarter of turn as he/she went around the 'circle'.
Finally, it sat down and flew away (later). We didn't get to see it fly away. We turned away from the patio door and when we went back to look, it was gone.
We were watching it for awhile before DH starting taking pics. Don't know how long it was on the pole, before we saw it. The pics spanned an hour in time (from first one to last one).
DH started taking pics through the patio door at first, since he didn't want to scare the bird away, but after a few pics, he slowly opened the door and took the rest of the pics that way (to get better and clearer shots).
I thought he cropped/zoomed the pics before adding them to the computer, but I see he didn't.
The day had a lot of glare and the pics reflected it. The song birds were feeding below and flying around the whole time the big bird was above them trying to dry out. We saw it watching them. Guess it was looking for dead meat (birds, etc.).
It looks like a juvie Turkey Vulture.
We live in a rural area within our subdivison and there is a 13 acre wooded meadow field next to our property. This is the first time we've seen this. We've been living here since Spring 1997.
