August, 2012
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| Surveying the Area |
Enjoying the Morning Sun
Greetings from Mother Nature:
It has been a while since I asked the train guys to do some writing. I have been pretty busy reacting to all the carbon and hot air that is spewing into the atmosphere; but, you have heard that story before. Hopefully, more of you will start to do something about it. I really don't like 100+ degree days more than two or three times per summer in Iowa, but this year I threw more than 30 at you and still no serious efforts to treat me better. I gave you a couple of years of intense rainfall followed by drought. I am thinking about next year now and have to decide between drought and floods.
On a more positive note, I thought you would like a couple of pictures of the railroad's resident turkey vulture. He showed up for about a week and the train guy caught him one early morning doing his morning yoga and stretching his wings to enjoy the glorious sunrise. The spread wing pose dries out his wings, warms his body, and bakes off some of the bacteria he may have acquired while cleaning up my ground.
Many people do not like turkey vultures, considering them not as dramatic as turkeys and not especially pretty. But you know that Mother Nature does not really care about how pretty anything is; she cares about its ability to survive, perform its duties in the world, and reproduce.
Our resident turkey vulture was a bit busy this summer. The coyotes are back and they may have left some carcasses. Also the intense heat may have been fatal for some small mammals. Anyway, our vulture was doing his duty of cleaning up the carcasses of animals that have expired. The turkey vulture has a well developed sense of smell and can notice the gases coming from decaying carcasses.
I promise to tell the train guys to write my stories more often. I have a lot to say and it seems like the days are just too busy, but I can carve out some time.
Hope you enjoy the rest of summer and I have a great autumn planned for Iowa.
Talk to you later,
Mother Nature
