“Hey Honey. Grab your camera. Will’s got a bird at his front door.”
For the second time in four days. A photo opportunity. And a learning opportunity. Excitedly I cross the road and see a small hawk on the lawn.
Is his wing broken?
He struggles and flaps his wings trying to get away from the admiring humans. He runs towards the open garage but stops on nearby bags of soil –
a higher vantage point perhaps?
Note the strong, sharp talons!
From there, he walks to the patio, watching us all the time.
I see his sharp, hooked beak and his ‘fierce, free eyes’ – as Byrd Baylor (1976) describes Rudy Soto’s hawk in Hawk, I’m Your Brother.
I see a droopy left wing, stopping him from flying as a hawk is meant to fly: soaring, gliding, diving…
One last photo, then we leave him in peace…
I phone and leave a message at a wildlife centre to see what we should/could do with a young hawk with a possible broken wing.
An hour later the hawk goes from Will’s front yard. When he leaves and where he goes, we do not know. It’s up to Mother Nature now…
As for me…
I re-read and relish Byrd Baylor’s wonderful book, Hawk, I’m Your Brother.
I also aim for ‘just-in-time-learning’.
I look up ‘hawks’ in the index of A Guide to Field Identification, Birds of North America (1966) by Robbins, Bruun and Zim and flip through sixteen pages of vultures, hawks and falcons (all of whom are in Order Falconformes) and learn that they are ‘diurnal flesh eaters and most take live prey.’ In addition, they ‘all have a heavy, sharp, hooked bill, and toes with strong curved talons’ (p. 64). However, I am not sure which hawk this one is…
I Google. But there are many, many choices…
I’ll settle for ‘hawk’ for the time being!
Can you share your information about hawks?
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