Forest Neighbors

As many of you know, we have moved into our new house. We are still moving things from the old house, but we are sleeping and eating in the new house. The new house is on an acre plus of land, and it is in a heavily forested area. We have lots of trees, so we also have lots of wild life. We have seen deer, wild pigs, racoons, opossums and lots of birds. Yesterday, between trips to the other house, Wally and I were eating lunch at the new house. All of sudden, Wally called me to look out into the backyard. This is what we saw. If you can't see too clearly, here is a closer shot. Now our fence is 6 feet tall, so you know this is a big bird. We have seen lots of vultures out here, but never this close up. They are usually on the side of the road or gliding on the air currents.

What you can't see in this picture is the blue jays dive bombing the vulture. I don't know if there was a blue jay chick on the ground or what, but the blue jays were having a fit. They were squawking and carrying on and trying to get the vulture to move. The vulture just stood there and looked around. He was not moving. Finally, Wally went out into the yard, and the vulture decided to leave. It took off and went flying over the pine trees. We saw it circle around a few times, but the vulture did not return. Then the blue jays decided to dive bomb Wally. Ah, the joys of living in the country.