Mike Powell

This Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) took a long look at me last week at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge before deciding that I was not dead, though I was moving quite slowly because of the heat and the humidity. Most of the vultures that I see in my area are Turkey Vultures, which have red, featherless heads, but, as you can in the photo, we also have Black Vultures.

I readily acknowledge that vultures play an important role in our ecosystems by eating dead animal carcasses and preventing the spread of diseases that could affect local food webs and human health. However, I admit that I, like most people, find these amazing birds a little creepy. Perhaps it is the result of watching countless Westerns on television as a child, movies in which circling vultures were always seen as a foreboding sign of death.

I like the way that this stark, naked tree enhances the spookiness of the vulture. One of my Facebook friends suggested that this would make a good Halloween image. For now, the image serves to remind us that life is ephemeral, tomorrow is not guaranteed.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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The gloomy feel of this photo seems perfect for these two Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus) that I spotted in a dead tree on Monday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Many people find vultures to be creepy, probably because they feed on the carcasses of dead animals. I remember too watching cowboy movies when I was growing up in which vultures would be circling overhead, waiting for people to die in the desert wastelands.

There were lots of vultures circling overhead on Monday and in situations like that, I jokingly tell people that I try to move about a lot, lest the vultures mistake me for a potential meal.  In my area, we have both turkey vultures and black vultures. They are pretty easy to tell apart, because turkey vultures have very distinctive red heads and black vultures have black heads. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “Whereas Turkey Vultures are lanky birds with teetering flight, Black Vultures are compact birds with broad wings, short tails, and powerful wingbeats. The two species often associate: the Black Vulture makes up for its poor sense of smell by following Turkey Vultures to carcasses.”

The light was coming mostly from behind the two birds, which created the silhouette-like effect that you see in the image below. I lightened the shadows a little, but I like the starkness of the almost monochromatic view of these birds in which most of their details are suggested, but hidden. I think it works well with the simple structure of the branches of the dead tree. Unlike most of my images that concentrate on detailed views of my subjects, this image is more about mood and shapes.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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