It's A Bird. It's A Plane. It's............??

(Black Vulture)

        We've had some beautiful Fall/Autumn colors showing up in our backyard here in Massachusetts, but we've had some other...not so beautiful...sightings too!...A few days ago, while he was checking out his seedless sunflowers in the backyard, hubby ran in the house and said: "Whoa!!! You're not gonna believe what's flying over the backyard!!"

       I said: "What is it?!"...As I looked out the window, I noticed on the ground, a huge airplane-shaped soaring shadow!! The overhang of our roof was stopping me from seeing the bird directly, but the shadow of it on the ground, soaring back and forth, let me know right away that it was big....VERY big!!

     Hubby had seen it. He said it looked to him like a huge hawk of some kind...but not really. O_0....Yesterday my best girlfriend was telling me all about this huge bird she saw soaring around,  and then later saw him...up close!...eating a dead squirrel. She said she'd never seen anything like it in our area before!

        We all put two and two together.....from hubby and my's experience of actually seeing them, and my knowledge of their exploits from my childhood in Georgia...and suspected that it must be a vulture....(buzzard). But what in the world would a vulture be doing in Massachusetts?! And is that what it really was?!

      THANK YOU, Google! :-)...Guess what?! We can't say for sure, but we're pretty sure our huge soaring visitor was a Black Vulture!

        (Black Vulture)

           Apparently that's what it was, because my girlfriend saw him up close, and the above photo was almost exactly what he looked like. And although hubby saw him flying high in the sky, he's pretty sure that's what it was too!

      Now the slight problem with this is that the North American Black Vulture's range is suppose to stretch only from northern Mexico through Texas and the southern United States, north to New Jersey and Pennsylvania!...Massachusetts is anywhere from 3 to 5 hours more North!

      The Vulture that would be more common to Massachusetts is the Turkey Vulture...

(Turkey Vulture)

        ...but as you can see from his beautiful....Uhhh NOT!...red head, there is no mistaking the black vulture with the turkey vulture. They look completely different!

      So, we don't know why we had a black vulture flying in the Holyoke skies this past week, but Oh! How pretty he was to watch soar!...Even if I only saw him soaring in a shadow on the ground! :-)

     We didn't video the above vulture flying. I found this on Youtube. But Can you beat any bird soaring in a beautiful Autumn sky?! I think not. And when they're as big and as beautiful as this one it's kinda special. :-]
      In other news, if you're a regular reader, and you're wanting to enter the Giveaway for one of the scarves I'm giving away TOMORROW, October 1, 2011, don't forget to click and follow the blog, and leave a comment below!...I'd hate to draw your name out of the bag and have to go to the next person because you're not a follower of the blog! 
      That, and commenting, are my only rules really...and I set them up for two reasons. One, I didn't want to give my crocheted 'babies' to just ANYONE that showed up and flooded my comment section on the day of the Giveaway! (I'd seen that happen on other people's blogs)
     And two, because I wanted to honor the people who are loyally spending a little of their time with me on a regular basis...It's NOT because I'm interesting in a certain number of followers for some reason! I don't get paid to write my blog, and I write whether anybody comments or not...every day! :-) I just like the idea of my items that I work hard on going to people that I kinda know! :-)
     By the way, I had hubby take some photos of both FINISHED scarves being displayed by my headless model, Tina! :-) This is the 'Pastel' one...

     Hubby thought Tina was looking particularly 'fetching' yesterday, so he got a little carried away with the picture-taking! LOL {Between you and I, I think it was the backyard he was a bit 'taken' with!! ^_^}

        The novelty of the backyard had worn off a little by the time he got to the 'Bright' scarf...and it was starting to drizzle a little. :-)

      Okay....there you go! Fall color, beautiful backyard, and a buzzard in the sky! LOL How in the world could today beat that?!!! ^_^ I know.....it's Friday 'Date Night'!!!! Here's a hint to where we're going...

      I know....not much help, right?! ^_^ No worries...I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. Right now we have to pack and go catch a plane!!! :-) Have a good day everybody!!
     {Don't mind the poem too much. I wrote it at about 2:00a.m.! It woke me up and insisted it be written before I could lie back down! O_0 Nope! Nothing is going on. But someone did make a comment to me on Facebook a few days ago. I think this poem must have been mentally ruminating since then.}


You don't have to!

You don't have to like the things I like,
the things I make, the things I do.
You don't have to like the path I walk
Understand that I'm not YOU.

You will not control the things I write,
the way I feel, what I think best.
You will not control the path I walk.
There's only one I must impress.

You can delete everything I say,
'unlike' my page, ignore my "NEW".
You can block me out, but don't forget...
I can do the same to you.

I would rather that you understand,
respect, encourage, sympathize.
But that's not really up to me.
I don't see life through your eyes.

But you won't control the life I live,
the way I see, or who I'll be.
Go ahead and try, I'll give you that.
But in the end I'll still be "Me"!