The butterfly’s head was buried in the rocks, her beautiful wings were chevrons trembling in the wind.

Gingerly, I lifted her out. Half of one wing was gone – eaten?

She was shaking. Or was it just the wind? Was she already dead? I brought her into the house and laid her on a small plate. She shivered, and then she was still.  I want to keep her, selfishly, to admire her beauty.

Today, we saw four turkey vultures preying on something. They were on the sidewalk! We drove right up to them. A small rabbit had been dismembered and disemboweled. Body parts all over the pavement. We drove away and were gone for three hours. When we returned, everything was gone: the rabbit, the vultures…Nature is efficient. She wastes nothing.