Christmas Hawks

Hawks live in my neighborhood. Two hawks chicks were raised above the rectory beyond my back gate the year before this one. I became a hawk watcher, a hawk whistler. But when the weather gets really cold and stays cold for a while the hawks aren't around as much. They go somewhere else.

It has been cold lately and I haven't seen the hawks around. For the past year when I have seen them there has been just one. I had feared that perhaps one of the chicks moved on or didn't make it through the first year. I know those chicks so well I have named them Iggy and Fran and I can recognize them if I get a clear look.

On Christmas morning coming back from Mass I saw a hawk on a tree behind the rectory. Before I could run into the house and get the camera he flew over our house and away. So the next day I carried the camera with me to church. Sure enough, not one hawk but two--Iggy and Fran. Here they are the St. Paraclete's hawks at Christmas. (Iggy is facing us.)