Raptors in the City
I saw a red hawk sitting on top of a streetlight beside I-5 during my morning commute yesterday. That’s not an entirely unusual occurrence, but it doesn’t happen terribly often on the short stretch of highway I travel between the University District and Alderwood. This morning, though, I saw two … and on a much shorter stretch – between Lake City Way and Northgate.
Whenever I see a raptor in “the city†I feel a small burst of joy – like I’m lucky. And I guess in some simple way I am. I actually used to take the sight of hawks and eagles in Seattle for granted. It was when other people remarked on them in my presence that I had to pause from my overworked and typically-jumbled thought processes to remind myself that seeing a raptor outside of the “wild†is something to savor.
What struck me this morning, though, was that alongside that small spell of happiness that overcomes me at the sight of one of these beautiful birds is an even smaller sliver of sadness. I don’t know why seeing a hawk in the city should be gloomy in any way. well, actually I do – it was a rhetorical thought. But what I don’t entirely understand is whether it should.
Motto
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