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This meditation brought to you by Red-Tailed Hawk. I was doing my morning meditation and just as I knelt down to light up the incense I saw a red-tailed hawk sitting outside my window on top of the purple martin box. It’s actually a sparrow box. I’ve never seen a purple martin near our house. But there, just outside my office windows was a huge red-tailed hawk just sitting there. I stayed low so not to spook him, and about that time Carri knocked on the door because I’d asked her to bring something over to the office. I told her to stay low and move slow, she did, and we both watched the hawk. We got to watch him gather himself up and stoop for something on the ground. We thought he’d caught something, but when we moved so we could see he was simply standing in the dew soaked grass. He stood there for a minute and I swear he seemed puzzled. We thought he’d missed whatever he’d aimed at, when he raised a yellow talon and stabbed the grass twice. We thought he just hadn’t quite killed it, then instead of moving in on his fresh kill, he just stood there staring at the wet grass. We finally realized that whatever he’d stooped to kill he’d missed it. He stood there a little while longer then winged it to the nearest tree. Carri went back to work and I made tea.

I also went back to finish my meditation. I was kneeling down again, to actually meditate when I looked up and there the hawk was again. It was on a low limb of the nearest persimmon tree. It was a perfect view of the huge bird of prey from my meditation matt. I took the hint this time, stayed low got myself a big cup of tea and sat back down to watch the bird. My meditation this morning consisted of me watching this huge young hawk groom himself just outside my office windows. I’m Wiccan so it doesn’t get much cooler than that for my faith, then a huge winged messenger totem just outside the windows where you meditate. Hawk is always a good a sign, but as I watched him scratch his head until it was fluffy with those long talons I realized that maybe the major message was to simply watch the bird and enjoy it’s surprising closeness. As Freud himself said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Then the hawk flung itself ground-ward again. I got up quickly but carefully to see what he’d caught and watched him repeat his performance of earlier. He stood in the grass, puzzled, then stamped the ground with his feet as if trying to kill something, but he’d missed again.

He finally flew back up in the tree. A squirrel that had apparently been flattened to a piece of ground in terror for its life ran like a furry streak to the base of the tree and put the trunk between itself and the hawk. I’ll bet that squirrel thought it was a goner. I know the hawk was young because when it flew it had two tail feathers that were the rufous color that gives the bird it’s name, but the rest were the juvenal stripping. I say he, because though big, he wasn’t as big as I’ve seen which probably means he’s a boy. Girls are bigger. And he’s trying to attack shadows or grass movement. We get a lot of juvenal hawks each year. I’ve watched hawks, especially red-tails, try for leaves blowing across the yard, then look puzzled. Grass blowing will also lure them in to no purpose. I’ve watched them come close to squirrels, chipmunks, and bunnies. I’ve seen the escapee run faster than I ever saw them move as the hawk hits the ground and misses. Zoom, and one very disgruntled hawk sits on the grass and has a cat moment. You know, the, "I meant to do that" moment. This morning’s hawk was so inexperienced he didn’t even try for the cat moment, he was simply perplexed that he’d caught nothing twice. Little birds began to mob him, a robin being the boldest. I’ve never seen a robin mob a hawk before which makes me believe their nest must be near, or in, the persimmon tree. The usual mob consists of crows, grackles, blue jays, and mockingbirds. Sometimes you’ll get chickadees and sparrows, but they usually mob from a safer distance. I’ve seen jays, crows, grackles, and mockingbirds smack the hawks on their heads and backs.

So that was my morning blessing a big feathery totem sitting outside my window. Can’t think of many better ways to begin the day unless a bear walked through the yard, but that would be a mixed blessing with all the neighborhood dogs being on the small side.