January 6, 2010 @ 8:18 am | Filed under: Nature Study
Gee, I wonder why.
Blurry photo. Couldn’t be helped. Baby tugging on arm, etc. This fellow was perched atop our back fence about three feet from the bird feeder. Later, Scott saw him plummet out of the sky into our bushes. Sorry, little sparrows.
Ellie—us too. Scott and I even mapped our honeymoon route (a road trip through New Hampshire and Vermont) around a raptor center in VT. I love to see hawks and was quite squee over this one, but I did feel bad about luring the unsuspecting sparrows to their doom.
Speaking of VT , we have hawks that nest in our yard. This year a pair of adults have stayed through the winter. Huzzah!
Gorgeous!
(PS: Thank you for introducing Robert Burns to my youngest in the Martha books – brilliant, how you do that.. We are reading what we can of his and listening to his songs – is there anything better than Robert Burns songs sung by a Scotsman?)
Great shot! You go, hawk, and eat the house sparrows! (and only the house sparrows) Is it a Red-shouldered? Unable to fully see the wings or tail, Lydia is befuddled.
we live in the city. We didn’t manage to get a photo but we once had a hawk not only come near our bird feeder but actually snag a small bird and leave a literally bloody mess in the snow near the bird feeder:(
Melissa – this is Coopers Hawk – GREAT shot!
He will stay in your place – but not for long, I hope – he’ll need to “patrol” the neighborhood
Look here: http://www.hmrprint.com/helensphotos/HAWKS.html
Yes, a Cooper’s Hawk. We have a cousin, the Sharp Shinned, that shows up here now and then. It is amusing when a very busy feeder only moments ago is now deadly silent.
Yay, Helen, I was hoping you would chime in! Thanks to you and Anna for the ID.
Everyone, be sure to click through the link in Helen’s comment—she has a site full of amazing photos of birds, butterflies, and other wild things. My kids love to explore it.
(A roundup post with links to my notes and reviews)
Hey, what happened to all those booklists you used to have in your sidebars at the old blog?
They're still accessible at melissawiley.typepad.com, where this blog lived from January 2005-March 2008. You can also find all my Lilting House posts there, or try the search bar here. All my previous Bonny Glen and Lilting House posts have been imported to this site.
Every day is complicated, messy, and full of friction. And every day has glorious or cozy moments worth celebrating. I seldom bother to chronicle the friction and the mess because writing time is fleeting and precious—and childhood even more so. I’d rather capture the small joys that I might forget—or take for granted—if I don’t take time to set them down in words.
(Excerpt from this post about Real Life, quoted here because I don't want anyone to be under the impression that things are always perfect around here! Heaven knows we are anything but. Perfect, frictionless, orderly? Nope. Happy? Most of the time!)
Be like the bird
Who, pausing in flight
On limb too slight,
Feels it give way beneath her,
Yet sings,
Knowing she has wings.
—Victor Hugo
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“Exploration,” says John Stilgoe, author of Outside Lies Magic, “is a liberal art, because it is an art that liberates, that frees, that opens away from narrowness. And it is fun.”
Yes: it is so, so much fun, and that is why I write these posts all chattery with excitement over this or that connection the kids made today. (Or that I made myself!) I know I get carried away, but that’s the point, isn’t it, that way leading on to way has carried me away?
And yet—and yet—I think we are at once ‘carried away’ and made more fully present in the now, more rooted, by these relationships between ideas about things past and future. The joy of connection makes me want to celebrate this moment, this brief encounter with wild-haired child and broad-trunked tree, bus going by, sign on church wall, Scottish warlord creeping over the tower wall and startling the English soldier’s wife who has just put her babe in arms to sleep by crooning that the Black Douglas won’t get him. Child, laughing, shouting “Dinna ye be sae sure aboot that!” across the courtyard outside the library. How can I not celebrate this freedom?
Oh, my. Lovely!
(Sorry — we’re partial to hawks! *hides*).
Posted on January 6th, 2010 at 11:46 amWow. Stunning.
Posted on January 6th, 2010 at 11:47 amI’m caught between ‘magnificent’ and ‘poor sparrows’. But mostly ‘wow cool’.
Posted on January 6th, 2010 at 12:55 pmEllie—us too. Scott and I even mapped our honeymoon route (a road trip through New Hampshire and Vermont) around a raptor center in VT. I love to see hawks and was quite squee over this one, but I did feel bad about luring the unsuspecting sparrows to their doom.
Posted on January 6th, 2010 at 1:01 pmSpeaking of VT
, we have hawks that nest in our yard. This year a pair of adults have stayed through the winter. Huzzah!
Gorgeous!
(PS: Thank you for introducing Robert Burns to my youngest in the Martha books – brilliant, how you do that.. We are reading what we can of his and listening to his songs – is there anything better than Robert Burns songs sung by a Scotsman?)
Posted on January 6th, 2010 at 1:49 pmGreat shot! You go, hawk, and eat the house sparrows! (and only the house sparrows) Is it a Red-shouldered? Unable to fully see the wings or tail, Lydia is befuddled.
Posted on January 6th, 2010 at 2:30 pmI’m just tickled over “quite squee.”
Posted on January 6th, 2010 at 6:24 pmNeat! I showed my 10 yr old son who loves birds and he says it looks like a ferruginous hawk.
Posted on January 7th, 2010 at 3:18 pmwe live in the city. We didn’t manage to get a photo but we once had a hawk not only come near our bird feeder but actually snag a small bird and leave a literally bloody mess in the snow near the bird feeder:(
Posted on January 7th, 2010 at 3:44 pmMelissa – this is Coopers Hawk – GREAT shot!
Posted on January 7th, 2010 at 6:46 pmHe will stay in your place – but not for long, I hope – he’ll need to “patrol” the neighborhood
Look here:
http://www.hmrprint.com/helensphotos/HAWKS.html
Yes, a Cooper’s Hawk. We have a cousin, the Sharp Shinned, that shows up here now and then. It is amusing when a very busy feeder only moments ago is now deadly silent.
Posted on January 8th, 2010 at 11:16 amYay, Helen, I was hoping you would chime in! Thanks to you and Anna for the ID.
Everyone, be sure to click through the link in Helen’s comment—she has a site full of amazing photos of birds, butterflies, and other wild things. My kids love to explore it.
Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 7:01 amThats why there should be some cover for the little birds can hide
Posted on January 26th, 2010 at 10:05 pm