Monday, September 5, 2005

Circle of Life

                                              RTHAWK1.jpg 


I was unaware that we were granted the pleasure of having another Red Tail Hawk Fledgling (almost grown) until it was too late.  The photo above was from another time..... another baby, but yesterday with heavy heart we found the remains of another beautiful baby laying in our side yard, the coyotes had found it sometime during the night. Even the circle of life can leave the heart heavy.  The fledglings are on the ground for a couple of weeks while they learn how to survive on their own. The Parents still take care of the basic food needs, as they encourage them to start fending for themselves slowly.


Last night I came home a lil earlier from the lake then the rest of my family and as usual the only thing worth watching was on PBS. They were doing a documentary of the Red Tale Hawks of 5th Avenue in New York City. There is a male who is graced with the name of "Pale Male" He has fathered over 23 chicks and is on to his 4th mate. I do not know what happened to number 1 or 2 but 3 had died as the result of eating a poisoned pigeon. Red Tail Hawks are natures way of keeping down the population of pigeons but because pigeons are so abundant, especially in the big cities.......people who are not fans of them..... poison them, and unfortunately which ever animal chooses to feast on the dead pigeon, they themselves become victims of the poison.


Every year people flock to Central Park in New York City to watch the mated pair and their offspring. It is becoming somewhat of a festival......a hawk festival and I can understand the reason why. When you live in or near a big metropolitan area, the only time you get exposed to any kind of wild life is at the local zoo, so when you are blessed with the smallest of window of the animals in the wild,  it is something to rejoice in.......something to be in awe of.


I spent most of my growing up years right outside of Chicago's city limits and I would get excited over a wild rabbit crossing my path, now that I have a family of my own, we chose to move even farther away from the city were at least we have lots of greenery and wild life. I have had the honor of seeing Deer, Coyotes, Red Foxes, Owls Hawks, Raccoons and Opossums frolicking through our yards. My kids know this to always be a special and privileged honor to watch them in the wild. The joy in getting just a small peek into their lives always leaves me in awe, and the natural order of survival has to be respected just as much........ Even though it pains my heart when I bare witness to it.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was raised in the country and taught to love, respect what nature has to offer. Truth is we need them, they do not need us. Mama always said, you want to see how a person is gonna treat you. Watch how they treat animals & their own mother.

Where has our mercy gone? Sad, I do not know.

Brenda

Anonymous said...

Great journal entry. But mostly I want to congratulate you on being editors pick! Way to go! You really do deserve it!  Rhonda

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry about the hawk. The last couple of years I have been reading a lot about the one being in NY with his different mates. Guess they picked that place on account of so many pigeons to have for food. Coyotoes are getting to be a nuisance around the countryside around here. Killing calves and peoples dogs. I'm sorry but I don't like that animal. Have a good day. Helen

Anonymous said...

    I love your nature entries. I saw that PBS program a while ago, and I enjoyed it as much as you do.
    I still live in a near South Chicago Suburbs. Life has grown up around us and the urban environment has grown substantially. With it came an influx of urban wild life. We have oppossum here, coyote, deer, raccon and ground squirrels. It is good in the sense only that it is nice to see them. It is bad when you run the risk of running them over, of them biting and eating domestic animals, and of them getting hurt.
    A few years back a big, beautiful doe found it's way into our Uptown area from a near by Forest Preserve. It was the middle of the night, and only attracted a handful of cops. When they tried to corral it in order to have animal control move it out of town and back where it belongs, it bucked. They cornered it by a store front. The poor thing tried to go through a shop window. It survived, but it lost a lot of blood. That's hard to accept.
    I love your photos.
Jude
http://journals.aol.com/JMoranCoyle/MyWay

Anonymous said...

I feel the way you do. I love the wilder side of nature, untamed just free to be the way they were meant to be. We saved a baby screech owl once and the darn thing bonded to my Hubby...I think it thought "he" was Momma! When I first moved here this city gal was not too animal smart, so I tried to give it baby cereal and milk with an eye dropper. It took it, it lived I found an animal rescue that would take care of it...they laughed at me so hard...it seems mother birds do have the capacity for MILK.  Duh....Sandi  http://journals.aol.com/sdoscher458/LifeIsfullOfSurprises

Anonymous said...

Wow they really are a beautiful bird.. ! Interesting story..

http://journals.aol.com/myheartsaysso2/WhereTheHeartIs

Anonymous said...

How sad.  When I photographed the golden eagles' nest there were 3 eaglets.  The parents will only support 2, and it was hard to walk away from the nest knowing that one would be sacrificed to improve the survival odds for its siblings.  I wanted so much to adopt one, but it is best to leave the laws of nature to take care of itself so I walked away.  I recently photographed the family of eagles, and sure enough, there were only two immature eagles soaring with the parents.  Later, we discovered the carcass of a young eagle not far from the base of the cliff where the nest is, but this eagle was at least a year old.  We kept the talons and a wing bone for my son to take with him when he goes to Iraq. Golden eagles are very important symbols to the Hopi, and the spirit of this eagle will be with Gabe while he is away from us.  He buried the rest of the carcass near the cliff where it was hatched.