I'm going to start using only my PHOTO BLOG to post new photos. It's too much to keep up with this website and my other one www.livehonestly.com. To see my latest go here.

It was early; the sun had not yet landed on my solar panels, and just as I sat down with a cup of coffee this morning -- and I mean JUST sat down -- I looked out my picture window and caught this young Cooper's Hawk landing in a tree in what you could call my 'front' yard. 
At first, the hawk was hunting. I took some unremarkable portrait shots, but eventually the hawk stopped surveying the land for breakfast and turned attention to herself. 

She knew I was there. After I felt like she wouldn't fly off from being spooked, I whistled and made bird sounds to try to communicate. My dog was intently watching (it's the same tree a baby squirrel entertains him most mornings), and my cat was circling my feet, yet the hawk by this time was so comfortable; enough so to preen like this. To witness live nature shows is one of the best parts of living so close to the earth. It's never ho hum and I never tire of the wonder and beauty of life.