I was sitting at my desk working on a script, when, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something the size of a dog land in the yard in front of my balcony. I immediately glanced over to see a large buzzard staring back at me no less than 5 meters away. This was the closest I've ever been to a vulture in my life, so I grabbed my camera and my slippers and tip-toed outside to try to get a good shot.
As soon as I rounded the first corner that obscured my front door from the bird's view, it scurried around another corner toward the side of the apartment building. Entranced, I carefully approached the corner and was suddenly met with the unmistakable smell of death. It shouldn't have been as surprising as it was to me, but in my excitement I forgot they were carrion feeders and were often attracted to corpses. I braced myself for what I might find and slowly peeked around the corner.
I found myself looking at a flock of at least half a dozen Black Vultures surrounding the dessicated carcass of a deer. I won't go into too much detail for the faint-of-heart, but I will say I was a little taken aback by feeding process. I hadn't seen it happen this close before and found it very unsettling.
However, this was the first time I had managed to get this close to any kind of vulture and found myself morbidly curious how they looked through my super telephoto lens. So, I compartmentalized the disgust I felt, stuffed it deep down inside, and managed to get a few good shots. I decided to leave out any photos that featured the deer as I just did not want to spend the time required for editing looking at a dead animal. I also figured most of those interested in my work would probably not enjoy it either.
I've also attached some bonus shots of a Texas Tree Lizard. These guys are very spry so I unfortunately have not quite been able to capture photos of them yet that warrant their own post. So, I've decided to just tack them on to this one. One day though, hopefully soon, I will manage to coax one into modeling for me.
