still a viable career option*

i visited the mall for the third Saturday in a row today. of course, the previous two trips were not of my own accord, but because i was accompanying someone who wanted to return items to Best Buy.

while trolling the stores for something interesting, i found my parents stopped in the middle of the mall looking up at something through the skylight. my dad called me over to take a look. a few thoughts crossed my mind: perhaps it was a crack, or a decal sporting an interesting pattern.

it turned out to be a large black bird. and i mean LARGE; like, turkey-sized. bigger than any city bird has the right to be. it was bigger than a raven, with a hunchbacked profile and a tiny, bald, wrinkly red head.

"what is it?" my dad asked.

i quickly polled my mental roster of North American birds, filtering for birds that were big and black with bald red heads.

"it's a vulture! or a buzzard. they're the same." i replied.

i wasn't positive at the time, but as i continued to gape up at the magnificent, but ugly creature, i felt pretty sure that it was a turkey vulture. it had colouring and shape that was similar to the more famous Californian Condor, but it was definitely not big enough, nor was it in the right range to be the condor.

as i stared, i wondered why i hadn't seen a turkey vulture in Toronto before. as this thought passed, a second turkey vulture joined the first. they waddled around on the glass, leering hungrily into the mall.

i watched them until they flapped off.

in other news, i finally used the GAP gift card i recieved in 2003.

*in grade 3, i wanted to grow up to become a birdwatcher.