Up Close and Personal

Thirty to forty vultures were sunning on posts and poles around the pen yesterday.  As usual, most flew off as I trundled near with the cart and tossed out alfalfa for the girls.  The wagon gets left up at the corner and I carry the clanging buckets down to the barn.  I kept waiting for this bird to leave as I approached, and it didn't.  I was less than the gate's width away when I took this 'posed' photo.  Vultures are not dimorphic (there's a new word for you!), meaning there are no gender identifiers and no way to tell male from female, so I don't know if it was a he or a she.  The big birds were going to be disappointed if they were waiting for seconds and I had work to do and needed to get through the gate.  It wasn't until I came even closer that it took wing but only to move to a another nearby post.  Hmmm.

Percy continued his daily raids in the milking room while a friend stretched out full length in the big room for the duration.  There is a connecting door that gets opened for the view and any breeze that might blow through while a girl is on the stand and closed while switching them out to keep them headed in the right direction.  I thought surely that activity would scare the lounger away.  I was wrong.  After the last goat was done, I needed to rake and haul the nighttime offerings.  "Sorry, little friend, you have to move."  When I was perhaps three feet away, he finally deigned to lift his head.  Not until I actually started raking did he duck under the wall.  He and others were right there again when I put down their cereal.

I don't know what it was yesterday, but the creatures certainly behaved strangely.