Balance, Attention, Crash Landings- a beginning

Beginning a decade ago, I have unconsciously and most intricately spun a web of results, reactions formed through action and hapless circumstance. There's a wide spectrum of sunrises and mountain sides I have squinted my eyes to gasp at. There are thousands of birds, flowers, bugs and trees I have oggled for hours and just as many moments standing stark still, listening to the wisdom of the wind howl in my ears. Yet, each time I spy this anew it invigorates those that have come before, ameliorates a response of pleasure and reticent joy, it beckons me forth with a wave of pleasure, glad that I was paying attention to seemingly nothing and it turned into noticing everything.

Each year, throughout travels between Southern California and Oregon, occasionally dipping into Nevada, Arizona, Washington and Idaho I have been awarded the spontaneity of life's natural wonder. Still, seeing a new hawk on the powerlines driving the same old drive each day to work, or the same old prairie falcon that likes to hunt early, or the eagles that have been watching over the canyon for decades- it feels like a shiny surprise every time. And the conjuring begins, questions of how birds can cycle and balance right alongside the rest of us stinky co-populates, they can even, upon my observant, non-empirical approach, vastly aid in mitigating common pests for our habitats. I watch them. I notice who's out and who's not and when, the wind, weather, dust, moisture, yada, yada, but not one written, data-driven record, just me standing next to my car or walking the cliff edge or going for a run through the juniper and sage brush desert; out among them, experiencing the elements trying to feel what they must be seeking- until now.

Getting the feel of their world means spending time with them. So, often I plug my eye with a camera lens and presume adoring these feathered associates of mine. As I drive each morning on my commute I await to see which of these local raptors will be cruising the aisles of alfalfa to feed themselves and provide for their nest. Gophers, mice, crickets, among other small mammals and reptiles scurry between the dense rows, and as the alfalfa grows higher their refuge seems impenetrable, so, as the cycle of hay harvest begins newly exposed ground leads to a frenzied feast... all raptors on schedule and present for their portion of time and territory to see all selections on the menu.

In the last decade I have observed the following: 
    
    DIURNAL

1. A breeding pair of Red-tailed Hawks (buteo jamaicensis) each year for 9 years
2. A breeding pair of Swainson's Hawk (buteo swainsoni) just present in the last year and a half
3. A breeding pair of Prairie Falcons (falco mexicanus) each year for 7 years
4. What I believe are two separate, but potentially familial pairs of American Kestrels-also a falcon (falco sparverius) first pair, 3 years beginning 5 years ago, potentially led to second pair for the last 2 years

5. An adult pair of mating Northern Harriers (circus cyaneus) with a juvenile, 3 years ago for a year and a half
6. An elusive Merlin- a falcon, too (falco columbarius) rarely over last 4 years
7. A breeding pair of Golden Eagles (aquila chryseatos) thought  by the ODFW to have used this area as one of a few nesting sites since the 70's. 

    NOCTURNAL

1. I have also seen a pair of Great Horned Owls (bubo virginianus) out along the lines as the sun disappears and the skyline lights navy blue. 
2. At times I have heard a pair of Western Screech Owls (megascops kennicottii) calling from junipers down near the river canyon rim.

Now, in this journal of sorts my effort will be given to characterize, scrutinze, and ultimately shrug to display how they monopolize my life and all the head scratching figuring I can muster regarding their innate wisdom. I will look back across the years to draw out potentially biased conclusions and unsupported supposition, but all based on an actual experience or set of experiences I myself have witnessed. And, forward, walking through life I will see what I see and continue to comment. Soon, I will be relocating from Oregon's High Desert landscape to escape southward and moor along the coast of South Carolina for a few years. In the meantime, it all BEGINS... here.

Speaking and thinking of birds, rivers, mountains, weather, plants, humans, and anything else has always had motive, writing has had very little follow-through. Herein, from now on it will be an "out loud" version of these mutterings. It will be mostly focused on raptors, song- and shore-birds, because I believe they ultimately symbolize and epitomize the truly symbiotic ties humans we can have with any other species. They sing to us, hunt for us, feed us, entertain us, capture our trust, awe and interest, they are symbols for our national state and decomposers of natural selection, they watch over us and connect us. They fly. Soaring, they balance in an unforeseen force of forces and so do we. As they cruise lithely in dashing air and employ their best attempts at staying afloat in the big pond of life, well, we march forward and invent a way to accomplish it through theory and crash landings. I, for one, only hope though that we as a species can use our sentient, intelligent posturing for an approach of cohesive, relationship- and comprehension-driven mitigation; aware that habitat can become ours but encourage and enhance theirs.

If we begin to apply our understanding of their abilities and tolerances to the everyday working ranches, city sky scrapers and beach front villas, then we can see their independence would be- and will be- ill-fated without caution and compassion for their subsistence. As it stands, the task and the choice is ours to avoid crash landings as justifiable reproach for every techno-centrically faithful leap in our "progress of man." We can do better, just by paying attention.