Daily Archive: October 28, 2004

Right in front of me, a brindled hawk perched on a small, winter-stripped sapling, his beak leading his head slowly from side to side. Seconds later he cast himself aloft, only about 6 feet or so, and stopped, as if he’d hit a glass ceiling, hovering in the air, wings bating and talons clenching, ready to stoop. I couldn’t see, of course, what it was that had caused his alert attention to spring to readiness for attack, but he was still hovering in the same spot by the time I drove out of sight. Another blue-sky autumn dawn, but it’s...