photo from imagesAlas,I did not get a photo of the Red Tailed Hawk that was sitting in my driveway early this week.
I heard the calling, heard it very close, and went quietly out.
But I was barefoot and the yard has been dug up and it is just dried clay now in half the front, very hard on bare feet. At least mine. Not being Cody Lundin.
And I got distracted because the calling was so close that I even peered into the bush next to me, but there was nothing there.
Then I noticed a Red Tail overhead, also calling. I could see the very bright rusty red tail in the sun. It was the first thing the eye was drawn to.
© Gil Miller (photographer)
I walked (tippy-toed thinking ouch ouch ouch with every step) around the corner of the house and the hawk had been in the driveway. I do not know which of us was more startled, me or the hawk, but it exited instantly, so fast I was stunned by it's size. The wingspan was at least two and half feet across. A huge bird, by any standard, so massive I was surprised it could lift off in such a small space.
The other hawk was circling overhead, calling. The one on the drive launched, lifted and vanished in the trees before I could do anything sensible.
I wish it had stayed a moment or two longer.
