These turkey vultures were settling in for the evening on the south bank of the Rondout Creek in Kingston:
Hand-held with the HS-230SX at dusk and cropped a bit. There’s no way to get a good exposure of a black bird backlit by the sky…
Roosting Vultures
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
I used to run across these when I’d bicycle near San Jose. I’d ride slowly enough to get the attention of a couple of them. Had to speed up to avoid being taken for roadkill. [grin]
Yup, when you’re organic and slow-moving, you score well on the looks-edible scale.
They’re impossibly awkward on the ground and perfect masters of rising air!
We have some sandhill cranes in the area. Completely opposite–so graceful wading, but absurd when flying.
Around here, turkeys fill that ecological niche: they can fly, but they’d rather not.
We’ve watched a yearling get trapped in the garden: it managed to land inside the fence, then walked around for nigh onto a half an hour before figuring out how to get airborne again. They’re not built for VSTOL…