It’s been quite an active summer in the back yard. Even with the heat, the rain, the thunder and the lightning, the birds have been active. We’ve had flocks of goldfinches on the thistle socks and the hummingbirds, while present all season, are now starting to swarm and bicker at the feeder.
The squirrels are active, too. So were the chipmunks, until a good-sized rat snake showed up back in June. The chipmunk population went down dramatically and now is virtually non-existent. The squirrel population is endangered as well. That’s because we’ve had a family of hawks show up.
We have a lot of trees and woods in our neighborhood, so hawks are common. They are typically red-shouldered hawks and they tend to come and go. The family that has spent the summer in our woods and yards are red-tailed hawks. Red-tailed hawks are larger, bulkier and have a distinctively different call from the red-shouldered hawk. They have been very vocal all summer in our neighborhood. You can hear one in our trees screaming and another answering from our neighbor Brian’s trees across the street. And it’s definitely a family, because Brian told me recently he was walking his dog one morning and the hawks were calling each other from the trees. Then one of the adults flew over with three juveniles following. They flew into the woods and the adults kept calling one another.
That was around the time I was on my way home from the grocery store one afternoon. I turned into our neighborhood and started down the street, when all I saw in front of me were wings and feet with a squirrel hanging from the talons. The hawk flew right across the windshield and scared the bejezzus out of me. I stopped to catch my breath and clean out my pants. The hawk was in a yard across the road, sitting over the squirrel and staring at me. He didn’t move. I did, eventually, after calming my nerves and gathering my wits.
Not long after, I walked out to fill the bird feeders one afternoon and saw on the ground what I thought was a small limb with dead leaves on it that had blown off of one of the trees during a rainstorm. I took a couple of steps toward the feeders and the limb with the dead leaves turned its head and leveled its gaze on me. I stopped dead in my tracks. It obviously wasn’t a limb with dead leaves, but the hawk. It was covering another hapless squirrel that lay motionless. I turned and walked back inside. The bird feeders would have to wait. About fifteen minutes later, I walked back out on the deck and the hawk was gone. So was the squirrel, without a trace.
That pales in comparison to what occurred a couple of days later. I walked into the kitchen and happened to look out the window. What I saw took my breath. The hawk was sitting on top of our See Rock City birdhouse, silent, motionless and majestic. The only thing that moved was his head, periodically from side to side. I called Jackie downstairs and we both stood and stared at the bird. He was huge and regal. She took pictures of him, and at one point his head swiveled and he stared straight at us. They like to stare. The pictures she took are great, but they do not do him justice. He seemed larger than life, perched in the middle of our back yard. Oddly enough, the songbirds were at the feeders all around him. They seemed oblivious to him and he appeared to be not at all interested in them. He sat on the house for what seemed like an hour, then spread his wings, lowered his head and glided into the woods across the fence. It was one of those backyard bird moments I will never forget.
I know the warnings about hawks in the yard, so I looked it up. Apparently there are supposed spiritual meanings. I’m not too sure about any of that, but one idea says seeing a hawk in your yard can mean clear vision, focus and a higher perspective. Well, that would help. Some more symbolic interpretations include:
Sharp Vision: The hawk has great eyes. It reminds you to look closely at your life and see the truth.
The Big Picture: The bird flies high. It tells you to step back from small problems and look at the whole situation.
Strong Focus: The hawk is a skilled hunter. It asks you to stay on task and work hard for your goals.
Spiritual Message: Some cultures view the hawk as a messenger bringing protection, leadership, or a sign of upcoming change.
I, for one, lean more towards the more practical and real world reasons, such as the hawk is looking for squirrels, chipmunks, mourning doves or large bugs in the yard. Also, the trees, tall fences and the See Rock City birdhouse give the bird a high, safe spot to rest or watch for prey.
They didn’t say anything spiritual about buzzards being in your back yard. We’ve had those, too. They have great eyesight and fly high as well, but I don’t think they were looking closely at life or the big picture. They were looking for a dead possum and they found it.
Be all that as it may and me being me, I had to give the hawk a name. I named him Henery, after the chicken hawk that is always trying to catch Foghorn Leghorn in the Looney Tunes cartoons. Hawks mate for life, so I named Henery’s partner Henerietta, for obvious reasons. I didn’t name the three youngsters. That’s not my place. That’s for Mom and Dad to decide.