Seekers of the Dead

Daily, I see turkey vultures spiraling in the sky above me, or veering down through the ravines around me without flapping their wings.  The vultures are seekers of the dead.  They spend their days aloft.  Constantly roving.  Circling.  Looking for any sort of dead creature upon which they might drop down onto and feast.

In addition to finding dead animals by sight, the vultures find them with a keen sense of smell.

Yesterday, I spotted two turkey vultures in a dead snag immediately below my house.  Before long, a pair of ravens appeared in a nearby tree.  And then I spotted a couple magpies flying up from the ground just below the tree in which the ravens had taken roost.

Death.

Only death could bring this crew together there below my house.

I quickly put on my shoes and stepped out to investigate.  The vultures, ravens, and magpies all sprayed themselves into the sky at once and flapped away as I dropped down the hill toward the tree nearest where the birds had gathered.

Now, a seeker of the dead myself, I expected to find a deer.

Not a deer.

Fox.

Now fully deflated and partially split open on the earth below the trees.

Likely the fox that has been sharing my birdseed with the local deer and birds.  Now, the subject of a new kind of grim sharing.

I managed photographs of the birds and the fox.  I will spare you the image of the fox.

—Mitchell Hegman