I Spy With My Little Eye

Today was a super-lazy day.  So as to not be a total slug, I decided it was a good day for my little furkid, Sophie, to have a bath.  She hates the bath part but thoroughly loves to be blow-dried.  After she was all dry she ran around the house doing figure-eights and running with reckless abandon up and down the hallway.  What a little clown.

After that chore was done, I decided to sit on the sofa in front of the television and enjoy a bowl of Raspberry and Cream gelato.  As I sat there, I saw my feathered friend go whooshing past the window in my den.  I sprang from the sofa and peeked out.  The red-shouldered hawk had perched on a large branch on the pin oak tree in my backyard.

As I always am, I was mesmerized by his beauty and grace.  He remained on the branch preening as I watched him through a pair of binoculars for at least a half-hour.  When he was good and ready, he lifted off the branch and swooped across the backyard and landed on the chain-link fence that borders the far-left corner of my property.

I was certain he’d go hunting on the farmland that abuts my property, but almost as soon as he lit on the fence he took flight again crossing over my house and landing on the power line on the opposite side.  I looked out my door and watched the line sway back and forth from the force of him resting there.

I watched him survey the ground beneath him, his yellow beak glistening in the sun.  I stood in the doorway and watched him hoping that he would come closer so I could get a better picture of him than I did last week.  Daylight was beginning to give way to dusk and I didn’t want to take another crappy photo of him.

I guess he sat there two or so minutes and saw him look to his extreme right.  He spotted something that interested him greatly.  Just then he flew to his right and landed on the gate at my driveway.

I didn’t have any idea what caught his attention until I downloaded the photograph you see here.  If you look closely at the tree at the end of the fence you will see a squirrel peeking out.  Look closely.  He’s clinging to the tree upside-down.

I was pretty sure the squirrel was a goner, but someone rode by on a motorcycle and frightened both prey and predator away.  I guess you could say it was a lucky day for the little fuzzy-tailed rat.  

My Amazing Friend Has Come Back

I was sitting at the bar in my kitchen wrapping up my day of blogging.  It was dusk.  While I was waiting for my computer to power down, I looked out the window and noticed a large bird fly across the yard of my neighbor across the street. He flew up to the trunk of a tree and ricocheted off perching in an adjacent tree.

I reached into my drawer and found my camera.  I moved quickly into the living room which has a picture window to see if I could spot him.  Just then, he took flight and landed in the oak tree in my front yard.

I was now running to the bedroom to see if I could snap a picture of him.  I had already drawn the blinds so I had to stick the camera between the slats and hope for the best.

This picture is decidedly poor quality but I have a good excuse.  It was dusky at the time I took it, I couldn’t open the blinds because doing so would frighten him off and the window screen, unfortunately, blurred the image.  If you look closely at the second branch from the ground on the right you can see him.

I first noticed my amazing visitor back in August 2013.  I spotted him again in September and once more in October.

I wrote in October that I gathered as much information about red-shouldered hawks from my local wildlife organization as I could.  I learned that the southern populations of these raptors are not migratory and their courting display occurred between January and April.

I have looked and looked for my friend and had given up ever seeing him again.  Today, my amazing friend has come back.

It Reminds Me Of What I Love Instead Of What I Fear

Two Saturdays ago, before the government shutdown, I visited my local home improvement store to pick up the items I needed to create a “flower tower”.

I was inspired by the beautiful towers that Adrienne of Adrienne’s Corner had created some months back using petunias.

I already had the tin snips for shortening the 4-foot wire fencing needed and the scissors for trimming the landscape fabric.  All I needed were the utility knife, some zip ties, the fencing and the fabric.

I also went to my favorite greenhouse and purchased several trays of Cool Wave® pansies.  This series of pansies entered the marketplace last fall.  The owner of the greenhouse told me that they are ideal for planters and hanging baskets because they bloom profusely with little fuss and there’s no need for deadheading.  They are perfect for my plant hardiness zone.

I selected Golden Yellow, Frost, Berries and Cream, Blue Velvet and Pink Vein for my colors.

Pansies are one of the most popular and recognizable cool weather annuals.  In Germany they are known as Stiefmütterchen, which means “little stepmother.”  Anyone who’s read any of the Grimms’ fairy tales will know that stepmothers had an image problem in old Germany.  They have little frowning faces, hence the appropriate moniker of “little stepmother.”

My plan, at the time, was to construct the towers on my days off which are Sunday and Monday.

Friday night after work, just two miles from home, my power steering gave out.  When I woke up Saturday morning, I called the car repair shop I trust and asked if it would be safe for me to drive my car back and forth to work one more day without damaging my car.  The answer was “No, because doing so could damage the rest of the power steering system like the rack and pinion.”

I drove the car to the repair shop and the mechanic who knows my car very well determined that I needed to replace the drive belt tensioner and the serpentine belt.

One of the guys drove me home rather than have me wait for the repairs to be completed.  I decided to tackle the flower tower while my baby was being fixed.

There was ample time for me to prepare the planter boxes on my deck.  A few hours later the repair shop called to let me know they were coming to pick me up.  I cleaned up a smidge, rode back to the shop, paid for the repairs and headed back home.

With the towers completed, all I had to do was place the pansies in the towers and stand back to admire how beautifully they had turned out.

I went inside and had a chicken salad sammich, some Sun Chips and a Sunkist to wash it all down.

I decided to look out my window to admire my work yet again, when what should I see, but my feathered friend about which I have written before.

The red shouldered hawk was perched as pretty as you please on the handrail.  It was looking slightly upward and I was able to snap this photo from inside my window overlooking the deck.

On September 8^th I wrote that I believed the hawk had built a nest in one of my trees or in one nearby.  The trees on my property have only lost a few leaves thus far and so I cannot yet determine if the nest is actually in one of my trees.

My local wildlife organization informs me that this raptor may begin to nest as early as January.  If this is true, I hope to be able to witness its courting display during the months between January and April.  Apparently the southern population of red shouldered hawks is not migratory.

This means I will be blessed with the beauty of God’s magnificent creature and its offspring for years to come.

I’m sharing this story with you because the beauty of this raptor reminds me of what I love, which is freedom, rather than what I fear.

I am considered “key and essential personnel and a first responder”.  Yes, I am a federal government employee and I am required to report for duty each day despite the fact that I am not getting paid while the government is shut down.

Had I earnestly believed that the shutdown would actually happen I wouldn’t have spent the money for the flower towers.  And the car repairs really took a bite out of my checking account.

I feel a little desperate right now.  I don’t know how I will pay the bills when they come due if this impasse lasts much longer. So, I will try to live by this quote attributed to Corrie ten Boom, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

UPDATE:  I don’t own a camcorder so I thought I would embed this video taken by “opticalpress” on May 11, 2011.  You see a red shouldered hawk perched high in a tree and then the videographer shows the majestic bird in flight in slow-motion.  I hope this helps you to appreciate the regal splendor of this raptor.