Vultures devouring corpses deliberately left in a public place to have their bones picked. And that’s a good thing. So I hear in this remarkable story about Mumbai, and how residents are trying to restore a ritual that was lost because the Advil patients got in hospitals before they died was killing off the raptors that were supposedly feeding on them… it’s a bit convoluted, but brings me to a question I’ve had in the last couple of years. Has the number of raptors in our region changed? Specifically, has it increased? We walked out to get the mail yesterday and a big, fat hawk flew low over our heads and perched on a branch, preening. There are always so many hawks and vultures in the sky, along the roads. I don’t remember noting their presence in the past. Or was I just insensate?