What sight is more beautiful than
a dog and cat curled in a
handmade quilt while the rain
patters on the tin roof?
Alone, with just the:
House
Dog
Cat
& thoughts.
Then-
the kettle boils.
A siren song to life, my tea
black as night, sweet as song.
Late to work as I climb the stairs,
Fully dressed- shoes on,
To look once more at the
dog and cat curled in a
handmade quilt while the rain
patters on the tin roof.
In the past week, there have been more days of rain than sunshine, so I am soaking up every little bit that I can. On Tuesday night, I laid out a blanket in the yard and read until the sun dipped behind the garage. The warmer weather has called for salads and iced tea- one of my favorite combinations. With the warm weather, the end of the Spring semester draws near- meaning I can work from home three days a week instead of two. I’m looking forward to working on my back porch rather than sitting at a dark desk inside. Not much knitting has been happening, but I have found plenty of inspiration on Pinterest. In fact, I’ve been a little Pinterest-crazy lately, and it’s been a lot of fun. I have a better idea for what the remainder of Spring and this coming Summer will look like: full of glowing light, spontaneous travel, delicious food, entrancing novels, and beautiful crafts.
I’m very lucky to work near the Arboretum and new Palmer Museum of Art. On my lunch walks, I try to visit, but with classes in session, it’s usually very busy. This past week I was able to get out for a walk a little later than usual, so I could stop and soak in all of the lovely flowers. Early spring blooms are my favorite, especially hyacinths and daffodils. The Arboretum didn’t have any tulips this year, but the loss was offset by hellebore and an adorable member of the amaryllis family. I paused my walk tracker to spend 5 minutes bird-watching at the Bird House. There were a pile of frogs- and their songs drowned out the birds, so I could only identify by sight. After spending forty-five minutes in the Arboretum, I headed back to work, refreshed and ready to finish my day.
Just a quick one today… at the end of March, my fiance and I took a trip down to Lancaster County for a weekend away. We had a marvelous time carousing around the countryside. Highlights of our trip included shopping at the outlets, visiting the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, and eating at restaurants like Route 30 Diner and Shady Maple Smorgasbord. I was deeply inspired by the many historical colonial buildings and the omnipresent tidy landscaping. There is so much to do in Lancaster County that we didn’t have time for; like walking through James Buchanan’s Wheatland and taking a ride on the Strasburg Rail Road. Already we are planning a return trip!
A Red-Tailed Hawk swooped down through the trees, alighting a branch to watch students. I was there, too- walking through Hort Woods after lunch with my colleagues. It’s been a while since I saw a hawk on campus, and years since I’ve been near to my favorite bird.
In parts of medieval folklore, witches had something called a familiar– a supernatural creature meant to guide them through their use of magic. Red-Tailed Hawks are my familiar, always appearing at unusual moments to call my attention to the world around me. When I was fifteen, I had a close call with a Red-Tailed Hawk while refilling the feeders in my parents’ yard during my morning chores. While shimmying the barrel of a feeder up its string, a soft whump sounded from behind me. A chill crept up my neck as I turned- I’m terrified of bears- only to find a Red-Tailed Hawk deep in the snow. She had most likely seen prey in the yard and dived for it, not minding the awkward teen bumbling about the yard in her snowsuit.
This type of experience has been repeated… once, when I was nineteen, I spotted a hurt Red-Tail alongside the road and called it in to the Game Commission. I waited there, directing travelers until PGC came to pick up the bird. Again: at twenty-six I was talking on the phone in the courtyard when a Red-Tail decided to take a seat on the brick wall nearby with its lunch.
Fear is not a part of a Red-Tailed Hawk’s vocabulary. When mated, Red-Tails will guard their territory together from other Red-Tails and predators. If a human strays too close to their nest, a Red-Tail will take no qualm in attempting to scare them away. I ‘ve seen hawks diving cross-traffic to hit prey in a grassy median. Along I-99, they perch on the fencing while PennDOT rumbles by in the mowers.
The two Red-Tails I see on my daily commute are road warriors. The hills between Bellefonte and State College are perfect hunting grounds. A huge swath passes through SCI Rockview and Penn State research farms. The regularly cultivated fields help form thermals necessary for hawks to travel. Plus, there’s a sprinkling of Wildlife Management Units, permitting nature to live unimpeded.
The intersection of human beings and wild raptors is increasingly in favor of human beings- but there are people trying to change the outcome. I recently learned about the Tussey Mountain Spring Hawkwatch, which has spotted 97 Red-Tails during 227 hours of watching. Programs like these provides important data used to build population and migration models. Simply watching and noting where and when we are seeing Red-Tails, we are contributing to the body of knowledge that is trying to provide a better understanding of our wild neighbors.
I noted my on-campus Red-Tail in eBird, briefly delaying our march back to the office. However, as soon as it was spotted, the hawk was gone, too quick for a photograph. I explained to them the importance of my stop and showed them my app- and continued our walk, as if nothing was out of the ordinary. The moment was extraordinary for me, as my familiar crossed my path and instructed me to pay attention.
gathering swallows 