Beaky Buzzard is a great favorite of mine, and I still enjoy that marvelous first cartoon appearance of his with Bugs Bunny. It isn’t often Bugs gets upstaged, but Beaky managed to do it. Despite the smoky haze the wonderfully warm weather drew me outside early this morning where I could enjoy the wonders of nature of my surroundings in this part of the Sequoia National Forest. But as the cat and I were basking in the warmth of the balmy summer morning I noticed the Turkey Vultures circling overhead.

The Kern River Valley boasts a nature preserve that draws birders worldwide, and is also the Butterfly Mecca of California. But we also have an annual Turkey Vulture count, and here in Bodfish Canyon where I live the sky overhead has been darkened by as many as 200 of the critters circling in a bunch all at the same time as though orchestrated by some master choreographer.

Now I grant you the spectacle of vultures circling overhead brings to mind many a scenario, and what with earthquakes, floods, fires, and drought I can’t help but consider these winged scavengers and what they represent of death and destruction. Poe had his Raven and we have plenty of those here in the valley as well; but as a sure indicator of the presence of death though Hitchcock didn’t use them the vultures are the most significant sign of such. While Poe could hardly have written such a masterpiece using a vulture they remind me of Ben Franklin wanting the wild turkey to be our national bird. Fortunately in this particular instance despite Ben’s genius and practical bent he was outvoted. While turkeys are a valued food item even my own Indian ancestors sang the praises of eagles as a symbol rather than turkeys notwithstanding Ben and T. R.

But as I watched the vultures circling overhead this morning I was reminded once again of something Henry Thoreau wrote: “There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted. It is human, it is divine, carrion.” Henry was making direct reference to the evil arising from the unintended consequences of those forcing their view of what is best on others not like minded and “would rather suffer evil the natural way.” Nature does indeed provide vultures whose purpose is to cleanse the earth of carrion, but we seek in vain for the vultures that would cleanse humankind of the divine carrion of tainted goodness.

No one for example of any noble character wants to be a politician. Like lawyers in too many instances the role of a politician is that of Henry’s goodness tainted, divine carrion the stench of which reaches everywhere but without the benefit of Nature’s vultures to cleanse away the filth. So it is that as I watch the circling vultures here in Bodfish Canyon I’m reminded they still represent Nature’s way of dealing with carrion, and cannot help wondering if Nature herself has had it with our species defiling our planet? As a metaphor, I see the vultures circling everywhere and just waiting for the moment to descend when the stench of death has reached Biblical proportions.

There is an old hymn we used to sing in our small church in Little Oklahoma that goes “How beautiful heaven must be.” Considering the plight of our species and how we have fouled our own nest, it isn’t any wonder some of us are longing for a promised heaven in a hereafter we are not likely to ever experience on earth. It seems there are just too many descending on us promising to do us good, insisting on doing us their idea of good from whom we should flee as quickly as Henry claimed he would from such persons, knowing they represent divine carrion, goodness tainted by such people demanding we all become part of their odd society.

It may be there are vultures circling ready to pick the bones of America and there is nothing I can do about that, but I’ll tell you what I am going to do. I am going to enjoy what I can of summer’s warmth here in the Kern River Valley; I am going to enjoy watching the vultures circling overhead, the butterflies, quail, doves, hummingbirds and others of my feathered friends, the numerous lizards frolicking among the rocks and count my blessings I am able to enjoy these companions in such a setting.