Strolling through downtown Tempe at sunset is a raucous assault on the senses; the long-tailed grackles are gathering to roost and poop.  Up here, we have a different kind of bird gathering:


The turkey vultures are back!   There's nothing quite like walking outside and having twenty or more of these magnificent creatures soaring overhead.  The photo is the local flock settled into the tops of a pair of  forty-foot tall sycamores.