gsvol
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A pale blue sky with high clouds streaked across as if by brush strokes of a master artist, a bit chilly but not bitter cold and with splashes of leftover snow in the shady spots to brighten up the day.
A pair of red tailed hawks nest nearby and today I was reminded of a day last year when they were into springtime mating ritual flights and the male was taunting the female as they rode higher and higher on the thermals and try as she might, he would always stay just a bit above her, their calls to one another were increasingly punctuated by hers which seemed to grow more angry as the flight continued, until finally she went into a swoop with him just behind until she lit on the limb of large oak tree to watch as he swooped by.
It was perhaps the first year that pair had mated. He flew by her a couple of times and then she rejoined him, they circled again and again upward on the updrafts but this time on the same level, as if two points on a circle, always opposite but always equal, until almost out of sight they rose, until, to my eye they were only tiny specks, then in unison they folded their wings and plunged with bullet like speeds and only opened their wings to enter the woods just out of my sight, to perform their magic and bring another generation of their kind into the world.
Today was a bit different, I have been seeing only one hawk for the last few days, circling and calling, announcing another trip of Earth around the sun, another spring season.
Talk about a happy bird, I noticed his call today and so began to search the skies to locate him and when I finally did he wasn't just circling and calling as he had been and just as I first located him he went into a swoop and I thought some rabbit or squirrel had better watch out but he pull up and then, evidently noticing that I was watching, sailed directly overhead and so, for a moment suspended in time, rode the wind in position and looked directly down upon me.
It reminded me of one day as I sat with my feet dangled over the top of a cliff at least 800 feet in height, watching a covey of quail I had outsmarted sail across a valley to land near the bank of a small river and while resting my dogs, waiting for the scent to come back to the wind washed birds, a red tail sailed by just underneath me, appearing to be watching the same thing, perhaps he had been hunting the same quarry.
Just as he passed beneath me, to all appearances oblivious of my presence, he turned his head and closed his eye for the longest moment and reopened it, since I couldn't see the other eye or know if he closed one or both eyes, it appeared as if he were winking a message to me; "today is your day but I will be back tomorrow and you probably won't."
Then he sailed across the valley, rose on the currents coming up the hills on the other side of the river and continued to hunt on down the valley.
Today my little hawk friend, after watching me watch him watching me watch him, did some amazing aerial acrobatics, one moment soaring, the next swooping, sometimes at least for a 1,000 feet, always pulling up to to soar even higher, all the while calling louder and louder, almost having me believe he was putting on a show just for me.
But then here she came, majestic, magnificent, with no movement of her wings at all, first taking a look at me then playing on the wind, first to one side and then to the other, sailing ever higher, this year not challenging his stronger flight but coyly letting him show off his abilities to provide food and protect, calling softly as he went into glorious swoops only to pull up and achieve even greater heights.
It was almost if they appreciated that I appreciated them.
Eventually they swooped for a couple of thousand feet, then opened their wings and soared into the woods, perhaps to select a good nesting place to rear another brood.
And then came a little wren, singing the spring time song, looking for a meal and a place to nest, there is now a nice little gourd with small hole hanging by the kitchen window that will make a good shelter to suit his purpose and in return he and his mate will entertain me with their happy songs.
A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Albert Einstein
A pair of red tailed hawks nest nearby and today I was reminded of a day last year when they were into springtime mating ritual flights and the male was taunting the female as they rode higher and higher on the thermals and try as she might, he would always stay just a bit above her, their calls to one another were increasingly punctuated by hers which seemed to grow more angry as the flight continued, until finally she went into a swoop with him just behind until she lit on the limb of large oak tree to watch as he swooped by.
It was perhaps the first year that pair had mated. He flew by her a couple of times and then she rejoined him, they circled again and again upward on the updrafts but this time on the same level, as if two points on a circle, always opposite but always equal, until almost out of sight they rose, until, to my eye they were only tiny specks, then in unison they folded their wings and plunged with bullet like speeds and only opened their wings to enter the woods just out of my sight, to perform their magic and bring another generation of their kind into the world.
Today was a bit different, I have been seeing only one hawk for the last few days, circling and calling, announcing another trip of Earth around the sun, another spring season.
Talk about a happy bird, I noticed his call today and so began to search the skies to locate him and when I finally did he wasn't just circling and calling as he had been and just as I first located him he went into a swoop and I thought some rabbit or squirrel had better watch out but he pull up and then, evidently noticing that I was watching, sailed directly overhead and so, for a moment suspended in time, rode the wind in position and looked directly down upon me.
It reminded me of one day as I sat with my feet dangled over the top of a cliff at least 800 feet in height, watching a covey of quail I had outsmarted sail across a valley to land near the bank of a small river and while resting my dogs, waiting for the scent to come back to the wind washed birds, a red tail sailed by just underneath me, appearing to be watching the same thing, perhaps he had been hunting the same quarry.
Just as he passed beneath me, to all appearances oblivious of my presence, he turned his head and closed his eye for the longest moment and reopened it, since I couldn't see the other eye or know if he closed one or both eyes, it appeared as if he were winking a message to me; "today is your day but I will be back tomorrow and you probably won't."
Then he sailed across the valley, rose on the currents coming up the hills on the other side of the river and continued to hunt on down the valley.
Today my little hawk friend, after watching me watch him watching me watch him, did some amazing aerial acrobatics, one moment soaring, the next swooping, sometimes at least for a 1,000 feet, always pulling up to to soar even higher, all the while calling louder and louder, almost having me believe he was putting on a show just for me.
But then here she came, majestic, magnificent, with no movement of her wings at all, first taking a look at me then playing on the wind, first to one side and then to the other, sailing ever higher, this year not challenging his stronger flight but coyly letting him show off his abilities to provide food and protect, calling softly as he went into glorious swoops only to pull up and achieve even greater heights.
It was almost if they appreciated that I appreciated them.
Eventually they swooped for a couple of thousand feet, then opened their wings and soared into the woods, perhaps to select a good nesting place to rear another brood.
And then came a little wren, singing the spring time song, looking for a meal and a place to nest, there is now a nice little gourd with small hole hanging by the kitchen window that will make a good shelter to suit his purpose and in return he and his mate will entertain me with their happy songs.
A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Albert Einstein
