Good story, same thing happened to me about 2yrs ago in the summer '06 I think it was.
I have a pretty big willow 36yds from the house. One day I 'm walking out on my driveway to get the mail. The driveway extends out 16+yds from the side of the house and then makes an almost 90deg. turn towards the road. The willow's trunk is about 19-20yds from the where the bent in the driveway is. It's a huge tree with its branches extending out to just a couple of feet from the driveway. I get the mail and on the way back I glance up at the willow quickly, and then I froze with chills running up my spine. I look back again and there is this huge dark brownish-black bird on it only about 30ft up at the most (tree is at least 80ft tall) half way out on a branch which was bending by its weight! It was at at least 2.5X larger than a red-tail hawk. My hair kinda stood up in the back of my neck because I was so close to it and it was looking down at me like I was lunch and did not seem scared of me. I was like what they hey? Is that an eagle?
The large bird was less than 20yds away from me but there was some foliage/leaves in front of it so I slowly walked closer to it until I could finally ID it and it was Turkey Vulcher, very dark brown in color. It let me get within 15yds and as soon as I got a good look at it it took off. It was a magnificient site. The good size branch easily bent 8-9 inches upon the vulcher's thrust upwards. I could clearly hear its huge wings cutting through the air as it was flying away. It actually took it a couple of seconds to start flying up. At first it was flying horizontally for a couple of seconds before it was able to gain altitude. It only flew about 50-60yds or so and landed at ;east half way up another ~75ft tree which was on the hill in the back of my house, still on my property. I think it might 've been there because I had shot a G-hog with my .22LR rimmie a couple of days before, and sad to say I never recovered it. It might have been laying dead somewhere in the back woods behind my house on top of the hill. That was before they leveled the wooded acre above the hill and built 2 houses. Most g-hogs would run up the (treed) hill when spooked, and disappear into the woods on top beyond the borders of my property. Anyway, I went back inside to look for the cat and make sure she wasn't injured or dead outside somewhere because she was >16yrs old and sick (died a few weeks later). It took me a few minutes to find the cat under a couch, and when I went back outside, the vulcher was gone.
I think that was a more dramatic experience than when I saw a red tail hawk way up on top one of my tree a couple of years before that, plus I had an owl that lived in one of my trees for 4-5yrs on the hill and I 'd catch a glimse of her once every few months when the sun was almost down. For some reason just the size of the vulcher and my proximity to it, toped all the other sightings.
