Dedicated To The Spirits Having Flown

: The Hawk, a preditory carnivor, watches for pigeons, songbirds, and rats.

: Undaunted by my presence, the majestic bird didn’t fly until she decided.

: It appeared the Hawk was spreading her feathers because they had gotten wet, but might have been an attempt to attrack a mate.

: Right up underneath this hawk, and using a flash, I hoped she would fly – she just stared at me.

This page has an associated TOCC TV cover

This pretty girl showed up a few weeks before Christmas. One day when I walked outside, there she was sitting on the power lines where you see her in these photographs. Same old story as with the groundhogs, I figured by the time I tried to go inside and get the camera, she’d be spooked and long gone. Not so. Just like the groundhog pups, she was waiting for me when I got back outside.

I reckon this to be chicken hawk, but she seems to brighter and more beautifully marked than what I have seen before. She sat there so quietly, and for so long, that I decided she might be sick, or maybe dazed on poison, or something. The was still sitting there forty five minutes later when I finally had to leave. But again it seems I am wrong. Because she continues to come back and sit in the same spot, or sometimes just down the way, on the same power lines.

Just today, I went outside and there she was again. This time, I got my camera out, trying to get the best possible shots, hoping that she would fly again where I could get a better shot of her wing span. She would have none of it. I walked completely up under the power lines, using my flash, and she just looked at me. I even tossed a couple of rocks passed here, but nope, she just sat there. In fact, it’s almost as though she stays in defiance when I start taking photos, because she did finally fly off this time – when I went to put up the camera.