Turkey Vulture

It's tuesday and we are missing Fiona. I think Tatum (hihowareyaspray) might do Faces of Fiona today and then next week we'll be there to pick it up!

The Salish Sea was very calm this morning so H and I had a very fine row around the island in the Alden. It's about 1 3/4 miles long and a a bit less than 1/2 mile wide -it takes us a few minutes over an hour - with a photo/water stop or 2. I think we and the 2 couples that live here full time are the only people around. ( That's why I love it here this time of year - so quiet. ) Intended to blip the south end -rocks and water...BUT.. as we were having lunch on the deck we watched a great show of eagles and turkey vultures coming and going from the beach --we couldn't see what was there from our perch but knew it was something to eat! So I went down with the camera and was hoping this rather large something wasn't a tiny seal. Whew, it was a big fish - (maybe a dogfish..)and I got pretty good photos of this ugly but useful turkey vulture eating and flying about. One watched while the other ate. H says later he saw the eagle flying away with a huge piece of it. He might have been the one to drop it there in the first place but we didn't see that. Turkey vultures don't make much noise at all, and they find their food by smell. (and they have a face only a mother could love, don't you think?) I have other pix of them eating I may post to flicker later.....

We were looking forward to having dinner with blipper Musings and her husband tonight as they are in the San Juan islands not far away, but boat troubles (always something to fix on a boat) kept them from coming now. We'll figure out another time this summer for a blipmeet!