TURKEY VULTURES

I was sitting on top of a peak in Pinnicles National Monument waiting for Condors to come by when I spotted these vultures doing their mating ridual on the rocks below me. The cocks were doing their best to impress the hen and she just sat there playing hard to get. They held their wings spread for the longest time only stopping long enough to try and drive the other away. They chased each other in the air and on the ground. This went on all day. The sun was going down and I had to leave and never did see which one of the cocks won out, but I do believe that the bigger one had the upper hand. It is the one closest to the hen in the pictures, but it seemed the hen kept looking at the distance one. I will never know which one got to tickle her feathers.