Author: Steve

The many moods of the red tailed hawk.

We had a close encounter with a prairie dog. He didn’t pay much attention
to us. He was busy having a close encounter with a red-tailed hawk. Here
he is, cruising down the walking path, when the bird swoops in from our
left. We thought we were going to have a Wild Kingdom moment, but the hawk
didn’t act like we expected, he was young and didn’t know what to do for
sure. The prairie dog didn’t act like we expected either. He ran until the
hawk got close, but then instead of ducking down at the last moment, he
stood up to fend the hawk off with his paws. It looked like he was trying
to punch the hawk, box him. The hawk was dissuaded enough that he diverted
and landed next to the prairie dog on the path. So we had a prairie dog and a hawk standing next to each other, the dog
threatening the hawk with his fists whenever he got too close. The hawk,
helpless, had no momentum. I don’t think a hawk can just walk up next to
its prey and stab it with a talon. He looked away. The prairie dog left.
Hawk flew up into a tree. We didn’t get a picture of the prairie dog. We did get one of the hawk.

Know those maps with the stick-on states you can put on the outside of your
RV? You get to stick a new state on everytime you go somewhere new. We
don’t have one on the outside of our motorhome, but that doesn’t mean we
don’t have one. I love maps, and maps with pins stuck in them, and maps
with stick-on states. Ours goes on a board we stash in a cabinet. We bring it out whenever we
want to look at it, or plan a new trip, or add a new state. The last state
we added was Michigan, almost two years ago. We may have to try to go
somewhere new before the end of the year. Let’s see. Which way should we go? No, we haven’t had the motorhome to Maui. We just liked Maui so much we
pasted that one on too.

We woke to the strobe light torture, the one you get when you drive off into
the sun at dawn on a clear day and the terrain is flat and there are tall
pines lining the road. It happens to us every time we drive a particular
stretch through Louisiana. Flash, flash, flash. It happened to us this morning without driving at all. Our bedroom window
faces east. We’re camped on the high plains. We knew the sun would come up
and start the baking process at about five am, so we pulled the bedroom
window awning out the night before to protect us. This morning there was a
breeze. There was an unobstructed low sun, a breeze, and a slightly
flapping awning. Another recipe for the strobe light torture. Flash,
flash, flash.