Today we had a visit from this fine fellow and two of his pals. Attracted by a suet block, I hope, though I later read that black vultures (his type, as opposed to turkey vultures) attack vulnerable small birds and mammals rather than dining only on carrion.

I marveled at the Thanksgiving-turkey-size heft of this bird, at his noble profile and the wisdom of his folded wings. He seemed to have arrived from an earlier age. 

My thoughts on him today are no doubt shaped by the book I’m reading. In Field Notes from a Hidden City, Esther Wolfson elicits understanding for the less-understood denizens of the animal world. She takes up for magpies, foxes and even slugs. 

“Slugs and snails, as everything else, have their place in the scheme of life, in the food chain, in the ecology of the earth: a purpose, you might call it, even if it’s a purpose that doesn’t always accord with our own. “

And as long as the vulture’s purpose is not to eat the birds that sup at our feeder, I’m fine with that.