I spent Shamokin's Festival of the Arts working on this larger-than-normal Dancing Vulture. This strangely-colored vulture stands at 6 1/2" tall, 4 1/2" wide, and 7" long.
Dancing Vulture is entirely to blame for my being such a vulture-enthusiast, my focus on local wildlife, and my name!
Several years back, I was in a terrible place, emotionally, mentally, and financially. I was in a constant state of stress and depression, hating my job, and my situation in life. Even my dreams were almost always stress dreams. One night, I dreamed myself wandering through deep woods. When I finally emerged to a clearing, I found these crazy-colored vultures! There was a large group of them, arranged in two circles- an inner and outer one. The outer circle was composed entirely of females, watching the inner circle of males as they performed a grand dance, bowing down and spreading their wings, and then standing tall to bare their magenta throats. I watched in complete awe as they performed their dance.
When the dream ended and I awoke. I felt calmed for once. After that night, I saw turkey vultures everywhere, dreamed about them regularly, and even found two huge flight feathers of opposite wings, but same length, right on my front yard.
This underappreciated bird has taught me so much just by existing and doing what they do naturally: working with what nature leaves them, and gliding effortlessly on air currents rather than struggling against the wind. Vultures are completely unphased by the people who think they're ugly or gross. These have been lessons that have helped me immensely, and on the wings of an unlikely inspiration, I've made it past my darkest times.
We can all learn a lot by just observing our local wildlife. You'd be surprised where the most important lessons in life can be found.