Post by swampfox on Aug 15, 2006 9:53:57 GMT -6
A couple of years ago I moved into a neighborhood with lots of old oak trees and a spring fed pool down by the lake. I went swimming (ya gotta look in the pool first to make sure you aren't gonna be swimmin' with the gators!) and sat out to drip dry before heading home. Well, a van pulls up at the stop sign and just sits there. I have my back to the lake watching the van. Sat there - no wave, no hello there. Got me nervous and phoned a neighbor whose house looks out toward the van and pool to get the plate number. It still sat there for a longgggg time....then very slowly moved on back up the connecting street. I watched it and waited. Then I picked up my towel, keys, and cell, turned around... there, on the fence behind me not 10 ft away was a b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l hawk.
This hawk was a male, dark head, "tear drop" splash from the eyes to cheek, tip of the beak had dark end, cream chest to his toes with tiny tips of tawny up on the high chest. Very dark brown back feathers and top side of wings, but the underside was all creamy. He was beautiful and stunning!
He looked at me, thingyed his head, looked straight at me.... we just kept looking at each other for the longest time. (Remember, he had been on the fence behind me for quite some time as well)... Then he dropped to the grass between us and grasped it, looked up at me, looked down and grasped again. I softly advised him to stop trying to eat the grass.. he needed meat. He launched into the air, flying only feet over the pool and over the fence at the far end, then up into the neighbors tree. I followed him there and watched him catch a lizard, then fly off deeper into our neighborhood.
Every once in awhile I would catch sight of him or hear him. After the hurricanes you didn't hear a sound - it was like all the birds and animals had left. Very errie and heart breaking. Then, I saw him on a stripped tree... with a mate.
Now I hear them calling in the early morning - I'm up at 4 a.m. I open my front door and listen through the screen door at all the little birds calling out from the dense trees. Then, at dawn, I hear the hawks. Great way to start my day!
This hawk was a male, dark head, "tear drop" splash from the eyes to cheek, tip of the beak had dark end, cream chest to his toes with tiny tips of tawny up on the high chest. Very dark brown back feathers and top side of wings, but the underside was all creamy. He was beautiful and stunning!
He looked at me, thingyed his head, looked straight at me.... we just kept looking at each other for the longest time. (Remember, he had been on the fence behind me for quite some time as well)... Then he dropped to the grass between us and grasped it, looked up at me, looked down and grasped again. I softly advised him to stop trying to eat the grass.. he needed meat. He launched into the air, flying only feet over the pool and over the fence at the far end, then up into the neighbors tree. I followed him there and watched him catch a lizard, then fly off deeper into our neighborhood.
Every once in awhile I would catch sight of him or hear him. After the hurricanes you didn't hear a sound - it was like all the birds and animals had left. Very errie and heart breaking. Then, I saw him on a stripped tree... with a mate.
Now I hear them calling in the early morning - I'm up at 4 a.m. I open my front door and listen through the screen door at all the little birds calling out from the dense trees. Then, at dawn, I hear the hawks. Great way to start my day!