HAWKS ARE FROM MARS: WRENS ARE FROM VENUS

A RED-TAILED HAWK

A hawk moved into my back yard. It’s either a red-tailed hawk or a cooper hawk. Both are common in the northeast; both are adjusting to life in urban environments. 

A red tailed hawk nested  on the side of a skyscraper at the edge of Central Park over twenty years ago. His name was Pale Male. Somebody produced a documentary film about Pale Male. I guess it seemed like a miracle that a hawk could live in the middle of a raging city. Now there are as many as a dozen hawks living in Central Park.  Pale Male found Lusty Louise. 

Life expectancy for hawks falls somewhere between 13 and 21 years, so Lusty Louise is a widow now. Hawks mate for life. Humans, you might want to pay attention here.

Hawks are meat eaters — rodents, insects, small birds, snakes, small rabbits. Only rarely, kittens and puppies. But be alert. A CBS newscast warned viewers that hawks are predators — lock up your puppies and kittens!  CBS didn’t warn girls about predator men. 

Stories about hawks stealing babies is pure nonsense. Babies usually weight more than 8 - 12 pounds and that’s the poundage limit for hawks. But while you’re supervising kittens and puppies, it probably wouldn’t hurt to supervise babies too, just to be on the safe side.

My yard is usually full of small birds — songbirds, wrens, finches. I like them. We put out feeders in the Fall to encourage these quirky little beauties — and so I worried when the hawk moved in.  “There goes the neighborhood,” I said. “You let one in and the next thing you know, here they all come.” I considered moving to a “No Hawks Allowed” gated community. Or maybe Florida.

It’s against State and Federal law to harm hawks. No shooting, poisoning, trapping, stoning, or gluing. Yes, that’s actually in a guideline. I don’t know what “gluing” means. Glue their feet to the ground? Glue their wings together? Glue their little beaks shut? How do you get them to stay still for any of that?  I’m thinking that some federal agent got a little too zealous.

He or she was probably a Democrat/Bleeding heart/Liberal -- a Hawk preservationist. 

Nobody else in my family or neighborhood seems too worried about the hawk influx. I can only conclude (because of my Native American roots. I’M not Native American; I just know a lot of them being from Oklahoma and all.) that the hawks were sent to me for a reason.

Messenger from the Spirit World

Native people claim that hawks are important symbols from the spirit world. If they come to you, they relay the power of clear vision and increased spiritual awareness.  They say to humans “The time is right to take the lead. Take more initiative. Be more active.”

What if their human doesn’t want any of that? What if she’s old-ish and has arthritis and feels that she’s done her share already? What if she just wants to nap? 

There goes that damned hawk making that awful screeching noise again. 

Sometimes don’t you just hate spiritual messengers?