Hawks here, hawks there, hawks everywhere. Accipeters, Buteos. Alive and dead. 2025 has been a year of hawk sightings for me. I tried to remember what my first bird sighting of 2025 was and I couldn’t remember, which means it was nothing memorable. A Scrubjay, a Junco. I welcomed the new year at my desk in my home office working 36 hours straight, and those are the usual sightings from my home office.
These days there’s always a red-shouldered hawk perched wherever I go. The yard, my office by the river, the road I’m driving on. I’m listening. Because right now I really need all the help I can get leaving a bad situation finally forever.
Give me moonlight when I’m leaving
You were my friend, and I was the same
Riding that hope was like catching some train
Now, I just walk, well, I don’t mind the rain
Singing so much softer than I did back then
“I’m ready to dream a different dream,” I texted in the middle of the night before disappearing for the last time.
‘Cause I’ve been driving like a trucker, I’ve been wearin’ through the gears
I’ve been training like a soldier, I’ve been burnin’ through this sorrow
And the only talkin’ lately is that background radio
I sit for hours with the hawks, until they get hungry and swoop down on their prey and I thank them for keeping an eye on me and I let their medicine wash over me.
Give me darkness when I’m dreaming, give me moonlight when I’m leaving
Give me mustang horse and muscle, I won’t be going gentle
Give me slant-eye looks when I’m lying, give me fingers when I’m crying
And I ain’t out there to cheat you, see, I killed that damn coyote in me.
~Lyrics from 3 A.M by G.A.I
My Love is for the Birds - Sketches 