Diedre and I were out driving around as the clouds were gathering and the rain marching in from across the valley in the west when we saw a curious sight. We saw what we thought was a flock of ravens or perhaps buzzards riding a couple of thermals around the town. We thought we'd ought to investigate, so we rode toward one column and got out the binoculars.

I was seeing eagles, a few buzzards, and one or two hawks flying in and amongst each other. I've not seen so many goldens flying one with the other, and much less have I seen so many different raptors and scavengers amongst each other in such a profusion.

They flew from one side of town to the other, broke up into odd bunches before coming together again on in the center of town, until they all started together just west of the town church. Diedre and I got out of the car again as eagles, buzzards and hawks swooped and hovered from no more than twenty feet above our heads to over three hundred feet in the air. It's really too bad I only had the 1998 Olympus d-220L with a sporadic shutter delay and crummy quality, but here're a couple of samples of the sight.

It was an absolutely amazing experience, one that we're still trying to figure out the physical reasons and metaphysical meanings thereto.