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Carrion Luggage

Carrion Luggage

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Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem.

This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it.

It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans.

It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier."

I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination.


August 9, 2025 at 10:24am
August 9, 2025 at 10:24am
#1094971
Another reason not to go outdoors, from OutdoorLife:



So, bears are calling in false reports to cause SWAT to show up at the tents? Oh, wait, the original swatting. Never mind.

A popular campground in Colorado’s White River National Forest has taken the proactive and unusual step of banning tents and all other soft-sided shelters to keep campers safe from bears.

That's okay. We'll just sleep out here in the open and-- wait.

The U.S. Forest Service enacted the tent ban at Difficult Campground...

Nominative determinism strikes again. When I was visiting Virginia Beach last week, my friends and I ended up at a winery. During the wine tasting part of the evening, I was watching the screens, which showed promotional documentaries on how they make the wine. The head sommelier (I suppose technically sommelière if you're pretending to be French) was named Emily Wines.

Can't make this stuff up. No one would believe you. If I wrote a story where someone with that name worked anywhere near spoiled grape juice, some editor would make me change it.

Point is, of course they made things Difficult.

...after a black bear scratched at a tent there with two young children inside it.

Or, in bear terms, a burrito.

The campground hosts told the Times, however, that the tent ban would remain in place for the next two months. They said they experienced similar issues last year with food-conditioned black bears breaking into tents and coolers.

To be serious for a moment, this is the problem. Bears start associating humans with food. Or, to be a bit less serious, as I put it, "If you feed the bears, you will feed the bears."

They added that “the bears were here first” and “this is their home,” and that campers are the real guests.

Humans, most places in the world, are an invasive species.

The Forest Service clarified in Wednesday’s public safety release that hard-sided campers and trailers are still permitted at Difficult Campground.

That's okay, then. We wouldn't want things to get too in tents.
*Thought*  Comment   •   View 2 comments


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