Here on Vestal Street we have two neighbors high above us. Their homes are not in the downtown area; they are not even on Vestal Street. One likely lives near Capaum Pond and the other high in a pine tree – but mainly when nesting.
I can be watering the Mitchell House garden, teaching a class, having a meeting, giving a tour, or even sitting at my desk and I can hear the calls high above me as they soar on the thermals, calling out to their mates, warding off predators and bothersome smaller birds, perhaps, maybe, calling to one another – that’s what I’d like to think.
One spends all year with us and one leaves when it starts to grow cold and arrives as things start to warm. I’m pretty sure its the same ones every year for the last few years. I am writing – and currently hearing – an Osprey (once called a Fish Hawk – and what a better name!) and a Red-tailed hawk. The red tail is much more vocal – and sometimes a Bluejay can sound like a Red-tail. But I am hearing both of them – and have just spotted them close together in the blue breezy sky over Vestal Street.
I love hearing them. I love looking up and spotting them. They provide me with a joyful break, a moment to pause looking up in amazement as they soar and roll and pitch and just float in the August blue sky.
JNLF
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