Zoom!

Today at lunch my friend and I went out for a walk on the campus of a small local college. Because it’s MLK Day there were no students or staff to be seen. The parking lot was empty. The overcast skies, overhanging trees and under-populated area gave it a somewhat eerie feel.

We had just started out, wandering across the parking lot towards the sidewalk which runs along the stream. Suddenly we heard a jet engine roaring. Novato is relatively close to Travis Air Force Base, as the supersonic jet flies.

We looked up, but there was no jet to be seen. Just a large black bird wheeling over a hill in the direction of the jet noise. The bird banked to one side just as the jet noise changed pitch.

Really, if you’d told me that I was witnessing the world’s first jet-powered buzzard I’d be hard pressed not to believe you. Maybe, flying up there, the bird was hearing the same jet and was having the time of its life pretending, as I was, that it was making that impressive sound.

Zoom! I’m a jet bird! No carrion would be safe from such a creature. Zoom! Bones picked clean faster than you could blink. Nature’s ruthless efficiency improved upon once again by the miracle of modern science. Zoom! The envy of buzzards everywhere. Zoom, I say! Zoom!