Did You See That?

Last month, as we turned into our driveway after school, I saw
that we had a visitor of the critter persuasion. "Look, someone's
rooster!" I told the kids. It was big and black, with a red head.
"Uh...Mom...I don't think that's a rooster," said my #1 son.
The kid definitely has better eyesight than me.

It was kind of big to be a rooster. And nobody out here has
chickens anyway, because if the coyotes don't eat them, the
free-running dogs will. The thing took off, and it was creepy.
It had a big red rubbery-looking neck and head. It had been
sitting on the late Mr. O. Possum, who had been in the yard for
a couple of days. And he was most definitely deceased and not
simply "playing possum," which I knew for certain because of
the simple fact that he had no head. OK, at this point I didn't
know Mr. P. had been there that long, or I would have had
Hubby fling him somewhere (but not down the sinkhole like he
did the last one.)

I told Hubby about the thing, and he said, "Oh, that's a vulture."
After checking into this subject by asking my middle school
students (who I find to be a great source of useless information),
I found out that they are sometimes called buzzards, or turkey
buzzards, or turkey vultures. Google lists some as red-headed
buzzards, red-headed vultures, and my personal favorite, the
Red-necked Vulture. How appropriate!

I also asked Hubby to get Mr. P. out of the yard, and he was
of the opinion that something would come along and eat him, so
there was no need to move him at this point.