Committee Meeting

Twice daily, nearly every day, they convene behind a biology professor's house.  They gather in the morning to spread their wings and warm the blood, and they meet again in late afternoon before lifting off to parts unknown for the night.  "They arrived about November 8," he told me yesterday, adding, "I've been here nineteen years, and I've never seen them in my yard before."  Some ask why he doesn't chase them off, assuming he and his family object to the droppings and flappings.  But he doesn't mind.  He's a biology professor and like me, he'd just as soon let nature do what nature does.

Curiously, the committee of Black Vultures -- unlike some academic departments -- holds a silent meeting, agreeably giving way on a crowded limb and adjourning without fuss, their wings flapping like academic gowns on a windy day.