Is There a Vulture in Your Chicken Coop?

   On a recent trip to Amicalola State Park in Georgia, I met Fabio. No, not the poster boy for romance novels, this Fabio is a rescue bird that now finds his permanent residence in the park with other rescued birds of prey. Unlike the Fabio of the book world, this Fabio is not quite as attractive; being a vulture, you could say he is aesthetically challenged. 
   But it wasn’t always this way. As a baby chick, all cute and grey and fluffy, Fabio wandered away from his mother’s nest. A nearby farmer found him and mistook his appearance to be one of his baby chicks. So the farmer opened the door to the chicken coop and put Fabio inside.
   Well, you can imagine the joy of a vulture at being let into a chicken coop! The grain fed to the chickens didn’t interest him at all, but it didn’t take long for Fabio to realize that he had an endless supply of eggs and baby chicks to eat. It must have seemed like he had wandered away from home and found heaven. It was the opportunity of a lifetime! It took the farmer a bit of time to realize what was happening and to reconcile the situation…and before long Fabio found a new home at Amicalola Park’s rescue program.
   Fabio appeared to be an innocent chick, but appearances and realities don’t always align. The reality was, once inside the coop, Fabio grew…by dining on the sweet chicks… and eventually was revealed for h ...