It was a good day for boat work in the boatyard. Very little wind and, in the morning, bright sunshine, made it the perfect day to apply two types of scary chemicals to the mast, one to "etch" the aluminum and the other to bond its surface so that it won't (supposedly) chalk. Now instead of a white mast we have a shiny aluminum one on Robin.
Then I almost finished sanding her bottom smooth. That's tedious work, but when the paint is on and the bottom is smooth, it should improve Robin's sailing performance and her fuel economy when (as is usually the case) the motor is running.
But I didn't mean to talk about boat work. Instead, high above the boatyard, I saw today something I've never before noticed. Two large birds were gliding in circles up there, paying no heed to one another, as far as appearances.
They were certainly aware of each other, and they must have been thinking of avoiding a collision. But that's not what was significant.
One was a turkey vulture, they of the grotesque, featherless heads and the magnificent ability to soar when there is virtually no wind.
The other was an osprey, a killer of fish who is almost the vulture's equal in soaring.
When I first noticed them, the osprey was to the west of the vulture. They circled in approximately the same rythm, lazily, at about the same altitude, circled but also slipped sideways, so that their exact tracks must have been loops along a course.
Then the vulture was to the west, the osprey east. And then  they drifted apart.
And what struck me was not their flight but their purpose. The vulture looks for carion. The osprey, usually, hunts for live fish, although I wouldn't be surprised to see a small housecat in its talons if the bird thought it would make a good meal.
One is designed to kill. The other's job is to keep the place tidy of road-kill.
Pieces of the puzzle that is nature, flying side-by-side on this beautiful day, each fulfilling its role. The universe is in balance, even when we, filthy humans with our smokestacks and urban sprawl and scary chemicals, do our best to wreck it. Even should a crow raid an osprey's nest of its eggs. Even should a semi run down a flock of vultures feeding on the carcas of a deer on the pavement.