As Lucy and I came around a bend in the trail, there was a couple stopped a few dozen yards ahead, pointing their cameras at something in the trees. Rather than spook whatever it was and risk ruining their photo op, we stopped where we were and waited.
A putrid odor wafted on the breeze as we waited, and I wrinkled my nose in disgust. "Something dead is around here," I said to Lucy, as if she didn't have fifty times the olfactory sensors that I do and a bigger part of her brain dedicated to smell, too.
Fortunately, our fellow walkers moved on, and so we did too. As we passed the spot where they had paused, I spotted an enormous turkey vulture sitting on the lowest branch, just a few feet over our heads. It all made sense to me.
The vulture started fussing when we got too close, fluffing its feathers, and shaking its wings. It fixed us with a look of suspicion, but I was having none of it. "Get to work!" I told it. "It's back there!"
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