Making it Up As I Go

File this one under: Where do I live anyway?

Yesterday we were driving down the road near our house when I saw a huge bird fly up and off the street. Huge is probably over stating it, but it was big, big enough that I said, “Wow, that’s a big honkin’ bird” outloud. We kept driving and noticed a white Corvette pulled over to side of the road. We changed lanes and drove closer, and as we did, we saw that the couple who had been in the Corvette were walking around the car and into the street. The guy seemed to have a big yellow shoe on, and for a second I thought it was one of those splint-y cast-y things they put on you when you’ve messed up your foot. As we got closer, however, we saw that it was in fact a shoebox, covered with a yellow Best Buy bag. On his foot. We watched as he walked around his car, and, with his foot so protected, proceeded to punt a big dead possum (I’m pretty sure it was a possum) out of the way of his car, and then turn right back around to get back in. Now that whole thing was weird enough, but what was sitting in the road staring at that big dead possibly possum? A buzzard! His buzzard-y friend was the huge bird I’d seen earlier, but this one wasn’t about to be scared away from its meal.

I had no idea buzzards lived in the city areas. Do they, or do they have some kind of radar when some animal dies that tells them it’s time to visit the city for some food?