The red tailed hawks have eaten their wheaties (or are acting as red tailed hawks that ate wheaties would do if they had eaten their wheaties) here in Little Grizzly Canyon today. "Kree, kree, kree," they call, and go kree kreeing around swooping down one side about six feet above the ground and then up the other. They sit on trees that haven't yet leafed, looking around. They swoop low down the road. They catch little mice. They swoop low over America's Silliest DogTM, who is puzzled at the sight of an animal *that* large that can still fly. (When she has noticed turkeys and turkey vultures, they have been on the ground.) They go kree kreeing some more.
I've spotted at least three pairs--I think--this morning. They can move awfully fast. It is surprisingly warm today for mid-February.
It's much too early for them to be feeding chicks, isn't it? I wonder if the mothers-to-be are yolking up, and I wonder if the fathers-to-be can regurgitate and so contribute to the yolking-up process...
Posted by DeLong at February 15, 2004 01:54 PM | TrackBack
Phew. For a second there I thought that was some kind of allegory for the Iraq debate. I was trying to imagine who would most likely say "kree, kree."
Posted by: Sven on February 15, 2004 02:25 PMThey are beautiful birds.
My wife and I are lucky to be able to get out and about in the old cattle country of the eastern foothills. Such wild country so close to the city. You should also be looking down at your feet as well as skyward. The first of the wildflowers are coming out. Milkmaids, shooting stars, hounds tongue and baby blue eyes are just starting to show. The fushia flowering gooseberry is just coming into bloom also. Enjoy.
"Kree, kree, kree," they call, and go kree kreeing around swooping down one side about six feet above the ground and then up the other."
Vivid and poetic. I'm almost there.
Posted by: Bulent on February 15, 2004 03:14 PMWatching them in the sky is also every bit as good as a fireplace, a fish tank, a rainy night and the sound of surf to lower your blood pressure and make you reconsider your priorities.
Posted by: Randy Paul on February 15, 2004 07:00 PMHoooo yeah! Now I know one of the things that has been giving me endurance in front of hardship all these years! Capital stocked in my body in my youth in the form of conclusion that life is wonderful and bueautiful... Looking at blue sky like a huge movie screen, with your back having mother earth for a comfy coach and then the smell of dry grass comes as the wind whispers wonders to your ear in that impossibly attractive language...
Posted by: Bulent on February 15, 2004 09:33 PM'Course one of the things hawks do is hunt loose dogs, seeking to carry them off to their lairs to tear them into meaty shreds...
Posted by: David Lloyd-Jones on February 16, 2004 02:32 PMChihuahuas, perhaps, but Labrador Retrievers? A red-tailed hawk may have a 4' wingspan, but it weighs only 3-4 lbs.!
Posted by: Brad DeLong on February 16, 2004 04:43 PMThe north shore of Lake Superior is one place people go look at birds migrating, and especially to see hawks.
I know the bald eagle is the national bird, but I believe it was Benjamin Franklin who suggested that it should be the turkey instead.
Anyway, the turkey lost out, but I do think it's somewhat un-noble at times for the eagle to be in a special place of honor at the same time it is sitting on a branch on a tree, to give itself the most advantageous carrion-feeding position on the highway.
Posted by: northernLights on February 16, 2004 09:53 PMYeah, I do recall reading someplace suggesting wild turkey as national bird in connection with Thanksgiving.
(I got a heap of work and I can't follow this up but I'm curious nevertheless: So I guess Ben Franklin was a grateful, deep thinking intellectual who nevertheless didn't understand politics of power? Or was it that he understood it at a level above his contemporaries?)
"..Ben Franklin was a grateful, deep thinking intellectual.."
I don't know about that. Maybe that's how the turkey got its negative association as in "What a turkey" Ben Franklin is. Maybe he was slightly windbaggian in nature, you know the kind, where if you offer up a small story, you will receive at least a half hour session on that matter.
There also might have been some negative feelings with a national bird that is butchered and eaten each year on Thanksgiving holiday.
Posted by: northernLights on February 18, 2004 08:48 AMYeah, absolutely.
Posted by: Bulent on February 18, 2004 09:22 AMYou may be seeing them stacking up, getting ready to head our way (Oregon) for spring...Peak hawk migration in these parts is early-mid March. It would follow that they start getting ready down south a little earlier
Rich
Posted by: rich on February 18, 2004 01:20 PM