ON OBSERVATIONS OF A COOPER’S HAWK IN NASHVILLE
Inspired by reading Walt Whitman and William Wordsworth in an hour of peaceful solitude… in downtown Chicago… in winter.
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When the weather was neither hot nor cold;
When in our at that time unmanicured back yard… that quiet back forty
Where we have wildlife and birds that come and go with the seasons;
There chanced oneo day when I was strolling
Out in that back forty plainly loafing
And thinking of nothing in particular, with mind wandering,
There came into my vision from the left, over the low tree and bush level
A gray gliding form, a spectacular bird,
And perched it upon a tree trunk
Sheared of many of its limbs due to this and that condition but left
For the birds to use and in this case
That majestic nearly mature Cooper’s Hawk certainly did.
It swooped silently in and landed in the top third of the trunk where some sturdy limbs remained;
And in silence I watched to see what it would do.
All details of the bird were plainly visible, so close it was to me;
Its beak, eyes, coloring and stripes, its mottling and size… a female most likely and on the hunt.
For as later observations proved, there were plenty of fat mourning doves in that part of our yard,
That chanced to gather near the back door.
But the many times the hawk came round, it followed a particular pattern as it circled the yard.
It would go to the same trees at about the same height, and thus had a splendid view
Of our yard and the surrounding yards as well, to spot its evening meal.
I silently tracked it as it branch – hopped, going to the perimeter, the front, the other side and then back to its starting place.
Then after a time it would fly away, heading south at almost the same angle and height and over the same yard.
Naturally the doves began to disappear; the hawk probably had a family somewhere around the neighborhood.
How majestic and beautiful a sight;
To commune in peace with this wild, silent, graceful creature
In peace and solitude in our backyard.
Divi Logan, Nashville and Chicago, 2013.
** I have since thought that since we get so many different types of birds and wildlife, some migratory birds as well, that our yard might be part of a flyway or passing point for animals such as red foxes, Cape May Warblers, some species of owls such as the Screech and the Barred, the Cedar Waxwing, the Black and White Warbler, the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, and some species of Kinglet and Tanager. We have a wealth of nature’s offerings, and it is marvelous to see and be around them. **
POETIC GOOD NATURE 