Sunday, September 19, 2010

Zoom w a View: The teenager flew the coop

On Sunday afternoon I flew past a young hawk - one of the largest I’ve seen in some time - at about 120 kilometers per hour.

It was a cool day today on the highway and my 16-year old, air-cooled bike rode like a new model. The only sound between me and the tarmac was thunder.


["Sorry. Nothing left to see but an old fence post": photos GH]

I knew the young hawk - my dad would have called him an ‘immature’; I call him a teenager - would be gone by the time I slowed down, did a slow U-turn and returned to a spot about 30 meters away from the fence post upon which he perched.


["Nothing but soy beans on the other side of the road"]

He wasn’t gone. But I knew I had once chance in ten of getting a good shot.


And moments after I parked my bike at the side of the road and seconds before I could take a picture he spotted me and flew the coop.

What a beautiful sight he was.

The teen wrote poetry in the sky with his five-foot wing span.

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