The Red-shouldered Hawk

 

The hawk was everything I wanted to be in life:

 solitary, self possessed, free from grief and numb to the hurts of human life."

~Helen MacDonald

H is For Hawk

I spotted this absolutely gorgeous, Red-shouldered Hawk, the other day, while we were on Woodbridge road. There aren't as many birds, in our usual places, as there should be, another sign that 2026 will be another difficult year for birding. It's okay. I know there are some hawks like this one, and a particularly chatting Belted Kingfisher along Woodbridge, and some Greater White-fronted Geese on Desmond, so we will start out okay, then it just might mean trips along the coastline for the seabirds and shore birds. Spring will bring the perching birds, and certain hawks in the summer. Pretty soon, I will sitting here again, just before the calendar turns to 2027 and I will be thinking about another year to come. For birds, health and life. But that's a long way off... and five minutes away.

A Quote And A Hawk

 

“I dreamed my shoulders held up the sky for a thousand hawks that squawked and cawed and beat their feathered wings against the hotness of the day. I supported their flight, watching and marveling, until sweat dripped from my body, and groans crossed my lips over fatiguing muscles.

Choosing to let the sky fall, I awoke.

My eyes opened to a cast of hawks gripping me in their talons. They supported my weight, hauling me high above the clouds through a blue expanse of heaven. And though they struggled—squawking and flapping wearily—never once did a single bird release its hold.” 

 

 
~Richelle E. Goodrich,

  Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year

 

Today, Just a quote and a beautiful bird, the Red-shouldered hawk.

 The world can take care of itself.

 

Sitting Up A Tree

 “You live in your head too much, you curl up and shut shit out and spend so much time doing it, you forget to live your life. You can’t live your life in your head. That isn’t living.” 

 
~Kristen Ashley

  Mystery Man

 

 It's so weird. This is the second Red-shouldered hawk I have seen in the last few days. I went most of last year without seeing one, except for a single one I saw perching on a phone line deep in the valley. Strangely, it was across the street from an Osprey nest sitting high atop a different pole. The Osprey wasn't being particularly combative about it's presence, so I guess it wouldn't be considered too strange, but it intrigued me. This little Red-shouldered hawk is chilling in an old tree at the Stockton Rural Cemetery. I would have loved to have studied him longer, but it was pouring down rain, and even with no wind, it seemed like it was coming at me in all directions. That's what it is like to live in your own brain too much. Information, experiences and events you want to enjoy are sometimes drowned by one single thought or a at times a deluge of unrealistic fear. The "what if's" can burden one to a devastating level. But it's 2024, the year I embrace living in the moment, instead of the fear! Friday, for example, we are heading to Bodega Bay where, hopefully, I will come up with enough birds to reach 75 in this year's bird album. But really, 80 is a nicer number! Hey, it could happen, I reached 54 yesterday!Not bad for 3 days of searching! I can't wait to see what's waiting for me next!

 

A Bunch Of Leaves In A Tree

 

“Stay I whisper to him. Stay in the car. Stay in this moment.

 But of course he never does.”

 
~Laura Nowlin,

  If He Had Been with Me

 

 

I always speak quietly to my birds. I always ask them to be nice and let me get the picture. Like this one, I asked him to be still, just for a few seconds. I got two photos of the bird, before it was on it's way to another late afternoon perch. He looked like autumn. From afar he looked like a bunch of leaves in the tree, waiting to fall. But after a moment, or so, he flew off on a gust of autumn breeze. I didn't get a picture of his lift off and flight, because I decided to put the camera down, and enjoy the moment. Red-shouldered Hawks are gorgeous inflight! It's good for the body and mind to live in the moment during autumn.

 

 

Autumn Comes, Autumn Falls + Autumn Leaf #21

 

“You cannot move forward in the real world
if you cannot see the real world.
You cannot find the beauty in the world
if all you see is its adornment.

Autumn comes.
Autumn falls.
Autumn leaves.
The world turns fire
and burns off all that is fading.” 

~Shellen Lubin 

 

My photography is moving along okay, despite being distracted by the ongoing middle east conflicts. Our own politics in the United States. The project with making the spare bedroom into a pleasant laptop room/game room, moving along as slow as molasses, and the slow arrival of most of the birds. Its really strange. Today I counted 5 Snow Geese, but last year there wasn't a single one until October 31st, when one adult and one juvenile showed up on Desmond road. This year the first ones, a pair, showed up at the end of August. It was a great Halloween surprise, but then I didn't see another one until weeks later. The Sandhill cranes came in almost 2 weeks later than usual as well. There are all kinds of birds that haven't made it here yet. I dunno, maybe I am just being impatient. I don't know why I should be, as long as I have that gorgeous Red-shouldered Hawk to play with. 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #21