Settling in...AGAIN!

This is one of the first sights that we saw at the first overlook in the Shenandoah National Park. Woody at first thought that it might be an eagle...but no..."just" an ol' Turkey Vulture/Buzzard. At first it was just sitting at the top of the branch preening its feathers and you couldn't see its head...but once I saw its skinny red head emerge I knew that it was a vulture...and then it spread out its wings like this and stayed this way for the longest time. I had lots of time to keep trying to get a picture of him. While it was doing this two more turkey vultures landed in the same tree and did the same thing. I googled why the birds were doing this. It is called the "horalitic pose" and this stance may serve several purposes: 1)warming the body, 2)drying the wings, or 3)baking off bacterial growth. Take your pick! The wing span is around 6 feet...a very imposing bird sitting up on the top of that dead branch in the tree! Another interesting fact about turkey vultures...they have no voice box so only utter hisses and grunts. There...you have your lesson of the day on turkey vultures. I learned something...hope that you found it interesting too!

We have spent the day doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Woody got up early and went for a four-mile walk. A bit later he went to the Credit Union and to WalMart and Kroger. I put the groceries away as he needed to gather up Graham and Abigail and head to Lowes for the building class. Today they built a "monster machine." Joy came over while they were gone. She ended up selling me some of her green peppers. After Woody got home I headed off to pick up a couple of my prescriptions at the pharmacy and then picked up my sewing machine at Janie's. While I was gone, Woody went to the library. Woody made us tuna salad for lunch. This afternoon he has read, napped a bit and watched some sports on TV. I spent the afternoon preparing the Sunday School lesson for my ladies' class. I have also started going through the pictures that I took on our latest trip. Woody made us green salads for supper. Guess he has been the designated cook for the day! Woody got some yummy ingredients for some of our soups...so looks like I will be back in the kitchen shortly!