January 7

January 7, 2008 by OrientSee.

Red-tailed Hawk. This is the closest that I’ve ever gotten to a red-tailed. I was standing at the top of a ramp at Suffolk Downs T station when I took this. He immediately flew off but it was great to see this bird relatively close up. Just as he took off, two Downy Woodpeckers flew into the branches just beneath where the hawk had been. That makes it a standup double.

When I started out on my walk today, I walked into the thicket beneath trees filled with three or four hundred starlings. The noise was amazingly loud. I could barely hear the jets landing nearby. Out of the strange recesses of my memory popped the phrase, cloud of unknowing. That’s the title of a 14th century spiritual guidebook. It’s a sort of English zen.

“And so I urge you, go after experience rather than knowledge. On account of pride, knowledge may often deceive you, but this gentle, loving affection will not deceive you. Knowledge tends to breed conceit, but love builds. Knowledge is full of labor, but love, full of rest.”

That’s quite a stretch from starlings to spiritual guidance but the marsh often moves me in strange ways.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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