Last year, a couple of hawks nested in one of the trees in our front yard. We so enjoyed watching them go about their lives, and then trying to catch glimpses of the babies once they were born. Last year we saw as many as three babies at one point, but as they grew older, we only saw one. I was very excited this year when we began to see them back at the nest again.
This year, unfortunately, we were able to see one of the babies up close. It had fallen out of the tree and was lying dead at the base of the tree when Mr. Fiber found it. They are still pretty small - his body was a little smaller than my fist - so we can't see yet how many others are left.
It just makes you think a bit. That's just a part of their lives. Not all of the babies make it. These guys are birds of prey and they still have it hard.
We've been having some, let's say, challenging times here lately. I guess it makes me glad though that my babies haven't fallen out of any trees. Things aren't great, but they could be worse.
Another sad thing to happen recently is that my local yarn shop has closed. This past Friday was its last day. I think I'm still in denial. Read NeighborKnitter's post about it. She's better with words than I am. I am really going to miss having a source of yarn nearby (5 minutes from my house), but even more, I'm going to miss meeting up with all of the amazing ladies that I have gotten to know through the store. I hope we are able to continue meeting every now and then.
Back to the hawks. I was able to get a picture of one of them (I think it's the male, but not really sure about that) the other day. I set my camera to it's highest resolution and took this picture:

The hawk it standing up on his nest in the center of the picture, right beside the roof. Below you see the zoomed up sample of the hawk. It makes me really wish I had a lens with more zoom. I've not been able to identify it yet, because the books mostly show you their differences when they are in flight with the wings and tail spread out. I don't usually get to see my hawks that way. They are generally sitting on the nest, on a nearby branch, or sometimes even on the roof of our garage. One of my mother's friends is a big birder. Mom has relayed as much info about it as she can to her. She feels that it might be either a Cooper's Hawk or a Sharp-Shinned Hawk.
If any of you out there know birds and can identify it, I would appreciate it!