Vultures!

On my way home from the library I was whining to myself about not having brought a camera (there are always photo opportunities when you put a bunch of volunteers in charge of dress-up materials), when I saw some crows circling overhead, gathering in a big cloud to roost like I'd seen so many times on campus.
Except for the fact that these weren't crows, they were vultures.
I'd never seen that many vultures in town before, but from the huge amounts of feathers scattered over three blocks, they gathered there somewhat often.
It was several blocks home still, and 90 unpleasant degrees, but I managed to walk-jog-walk-pause-jog home for the camera, splash cold water all over my face, grab a tangerine from the fridge to eat on the way, and then walk-jog-walk-eat-walk-pause-jog-eat-walk back to the vultures' tree.

Some interesting discoveries:

• Turkey vultures resemble turkeys not only in appearance, but in their aroma when dozens of them are clustered in one place.
• Vultures in droves seem to attract mosquitoes in droves.
• Citrus, at least in the quantities available in a tangerine peel, does not ward off mosquitoes.
• My camera's zoom capabilities are only slightly better than those of Shawn's binoculars in the pilot episode of Psych.

These discoveries made for a somewhat lackluster photo experience, but at least I got a few in flight:






Interestingly, in my hurry to free up a little space for these pictures prior to my mad dash back, I managed to delete *all* the other pictures in my camera instead of one.
Well, now I know what that button does.
Serves me right for not moving them to the computer sooner.

Does anyone know how to build an ark?

Well, it's wet out. There's also a heat index of 105 and I've somehow lost my camera, so unfortunately I don't get to take pictures of this one.

We're in the middle of the worst flood in this area in nearly 20 years. During the last flood I lived smack in the middle of the flood plane, and had the great fun of helping my mother put everything on top of the furniture and watching people canoe past the building. The water didn't make it in that year, but with yesterday's flooding several feet higher in some areas, I'm thankful that I no longer live in the flood-prone part of the city. Good luck to all who do - I've been there, and it isn't fun.

The community is currently under a Boil Water Advisory due to several breaks in the mains. Hopefully everything will be back up and running by week's end, and the storms forecast for Friday won't come to much.

As a bit of reference, here's a picture of the minor flooding we were getting BEFORE it rained on Tuesday: