Circling the Potomac

Just upriver of DC, Great Falls national park’s trails and overlooks carry people along the gorge, far above the tumultuous waters. The air above the Potomac river is constantly occupied, a dance between dozens of birds like this turkey vulture scanning the shoreline for an unlucky victim of the rapids, and the competing military helicopters that can often be spotted flying below the treeline up and down the same river. Adapted to the chaos, the vultures never seem to care, as long as they secure their next meal on the rocks.