Hawks are birds of special signifcance to me. All my life, these magnificent creatures have magically appeared when I am undergoing some emotional upheaval and am in dire need some assurance from the natural world, the very source of my spiritual strength. At other times, they seem to appear with uncanny regularity when I am leading a bird group and have begun a lesson on raptors.

I was in church Sunday, telling a friend she didn't need to make a special trip out to the woods to see hawks - the suburbs were filled with them - and that was a good reason to always carry a binocular or monocular. She smiled to humor me, when a Red-tailed, as if on cue, swooped down in front of the church window to our left and landed on a light tower in the neighboring park. I told her she could close her mouth, anytime, then handed her my Nikon 5x15 monocular from my purse so she could get a better look.

Maybe I was a hawk in a former life.