March 9: First Vulture

That first day of work after a vacation always sinks one back into the mundane fairly quickly. After spending a few hours in my office, I drove to a meeting in Rockland. In addition to thinking ahead to my meeting, my head was crammed full of work-related thoughts, the slightly rusty wheels grinding away, trying to get back into the proper mindset to get my job done. I crossed Route 90 onto Meadow Road, and suddenly noticed a lone turkey vulture soaring above the fields. I had just seen kettles of hundreds of vultures in Florida, so it didn't register at first what I was really seeing: my first vulture of the season! I waved to it out the car window, welcoming it back and wishing it luck in finding good thermals to ride and some dead things to eat.

Later this afternoon, four vultures cruised over the office. They're back! And we're officially on track for spring. From now until sometime in November I will probably see vultures circling over the river below the Megunticook ridgeline almost every afternoon. All is right in this part of the world. Up next: blackbirds, woodcock, robins...

Ah! Soaring vulture
buoyed by the earth's warm breath--
first of the season.