Bird Droppings October 14, 2025

I saw a Red-Tailed Hawk

It isn’t significant for many, but as I looked at that statement, I saw a red-tailed hawk. It was in 2004 or so that we had just moved to a lease-to-purchase house in Gwinnett County. I was in the backyard, and on a tree trunk was a red-tailed hawk feather.  Over the next year or two, I found several red-tailed hawks that had been killed in one way or another. While I was mowing our yard over in Gwinnett County, a hawk landed in the yard and died. I would carefully bury each of the hawks in our yard and take a feather to place in my notebook. In November of 2006, we were looking for a house in Walton County near to the high school and other family members.

We went back down a road and turned on what was a dirt road, and just before we turned around, a red-tailed hawk crossed our path, flying across the road and landing in a tree. We were at the right place, and we looked at several houses. After a series of back and forth, we decided on a house and walked out the door behind our house. A pair of hawks was doing a mating flight over our house. Since we moved in a pair, has hunted the fields and hedgerows since we moved in. For some, there is significance as each sight of a specific animal has meaning to them. I have had an affinity for red-tailed hawks for many years now. By my desk at home are tail feathers framed, and even in my daily meanderings, Bird Droppings is based on the idea that not all bird droppings are nasty, with a red-tailed hawk feather dropped as an example. This week, I have seen at least three red-tailed hawks by the house.

It has been nearly twenty summers since I had the privilege of teaching in our summer school program. We changed to a two-day class time and did worksheets, sort of intercession, and the fun is gone. It was a lot of fun back in the day as we surveyed the campus’s flora and fauna. On day one of class, I asked how many plants were on the campus, meaning different kinds of plants, and the answers ranged from ten to fifty. “Truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the entire world agrees with it, nor less so even if the whole world disagrees with it.” Maimonides

That statement has significance in education and politics today. As the summer school session went by, we pressed and labeled over 100 different plants, trees, and shrubs, all directly on the school campus, and still had many more to go. So, where is the significance to a red-tailed hawk? It is only one of several species of raptors in Georgia. It is not uncommon to be seen sitting along the roadside quite often waiting on prey in clear areas, easements, and fields. However, it has been nearly a month since I saw one, which is significant because I look for them. Much like my students, they really did not know how many plants were so close at hand until they looked.

I am also always amazed that when we look too hard, we miss what is in front of us. Yesterday, I was not directly looking for a hawk, and it appeared. A single second or two later, and I would have missed it. Life is much like this as well. I have spent many hours looking for something simple and only had it be where I looked, to begin with, and did not see it. I call it synchronicity.

I usually do not save an editorial page today, and I found one from many, many years ago that I had filed away. I happened to glance through the pages from the AJC (Atlanta Journal-Constitution), and several editorials on one page caught my attention. One opinion was about the sin tax proposed by the governor on cigarettes and alcohol. Now legislators are looking for other ways to cut the budget and not do good things like green space purchased by the state, layoffs in the university system, and cuts to TANF. It was finding 400 million dollars in other ways to cut rather than tax cigarettes; it is interesting how we think.

Across the page, a short article on underage drinking and how teenagers consume 25% of alcohol. Interestingly, alcohol and cigarette taxes were both indirectly conceived to cut down teen consumption. It has been a few years since the state flag issue, and it got an eighth of a page and several letters to the editor, including a letter from a man in Griffin, Georgia, quoting Gandhi.

“Any country would prefer its own despot over a foreign-controlled system, no matter how benevolent that government might be,” Mahatma Gandhi.

This letter was about our taking over Iraq, and the Gandhi quote was about Britain’s takeover of India so many years ago. Now I recall why I saved these pages nearly eight years ago. There was also an interesting letter concerning France. “France might be the voice of reason.” Another headline read to the effect, “US States IRAQ compliance, not the issue we will go to war, it is only a matter of when.” I am rambling, looking for red-tailed hawks and reading twenty-year-old AJC editorials all in one sitting, and still only three quotes for today.

I am concerned that we are rational as we wake each morning and go about our days. We have been watching a war unfold and now refold, which is, for most of us, simply on the news, although numerous deaths have been hitting home daily. Still, even though many of us know friends and family involved, it is over there. Several days ago, I looked for a red-tailed hawk and was frustrated because no matter how hard I looked, I could not find one. My son would see one and state Dad, a hawk, and I would miss it. The hawks were there, but I did not see them for some reason; I did not turn quickly enough, or maybe it flew by and was gone. It was not until I stopped forcing the issue that the hawk appeared. We can set lofty goals and seek to fulfill them, but so many times in our striving, we miss the accomplishments along the way.

Going back to that old newspaper, Rose Kennedy’s quote spoke of the moments versus the milestones. I used a former professor at Eastern College, Dr. Tony Campolo, several days back. It is the title of one of his books, and it is Latin for seizing the day. I was skeptical about using a quote with a religious twinge, but C. S. Lewis is not a typical theologian, so that I may borrow a quote from Mr. Lewis.

“Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.” C.S. Lewis

It is about the moment to seize the day, put aside the milestones, and seize the moment as I reread Lewis’s quote each time with a different view or understanding. Perhaps as I was looking for a hawk, I missed the point until I stopped looking and, in his words, found the answer. Each day is a chance again to start anew, fresh as if we can begin again and ponder, think, or seize the day, again and again. So for today, CARPE DIEM, and as always, please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and your hearts, and please always give thanks, Namaste.

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,

Mitakuye Oyasin

(We are all related)

docbird