Hawk History
for Vanessa Renwick
1. Duck Hawk
Wings half closed now,
he shot down past the north end
of the cliff, described
three successive vertical loop-
the-loops across its face,
turning completely upside down
at the top of each loop,
and roared out over our heads
with the wind rushing through
his wings like ripping canvas.
*
Just above the water
the hawk suddenly
accelerated, tapped
the cormorant lightly
on the back, then
circled easily away,
while the frightened
quarry took refuge
unharmed in the water.
*
At last as one turned
to evade the rush,
the hawk swung over
on its back,
and reaching
up one foot
as it shot by,
caught the swift
in its powerful grasp.
2. Eastern Pigeon Hawk
How closely
they huddled together,
as if seeking mutual
protection,
but he went
right through the flock
and came out
on the other side
with one in each fist.
*
Holding it forward
and downward
in one foot,
it occasionally bent
down its head and
tore off a bit
without slackening
its speed.
*
All the while
the Titlark
was nearing,
if by devious
courses,
a dense
thicket
of alders
into which
it plunged at length,
to be seen no more.
3. Black Pigeon Hawk
He swung on one,
and when the gun cracked
the bird started falling
in a diving, fluttering
flight, appearing
to have a broken wing.
*
The hawk
struck the snipe
squarely in
mid-air,
then quickly
carried it away.
*
Thus the successive
lungings and chasings
were not either one-
sided or haphazard,
but so conducted
that each bird alternately
took the part of pursuer
and pursued, and when
enacting the latter role
gave way at once,
or after the merest pretence
of resistance, to flee
as if for its life, dodging
and twisting; yet it was
prompt enough to rejoin
the other bird at the end
of such a bout, when the
two would rest awhile
on the same stub, perching
only a few feet apart
and facing one another,
perhaps not without
some mutual
distrust.
4. Eastern Sparrow Hawk
The point of the beak
is sunk into
the base of the skull,
and the skull
is torn off
with a swift
forward motion.
*
Then, sometimes
with a precise adjustment
to the force of the wind,
it stops the beating of it wings
and hangs as if suspended
in complete repose and equilibrium,
seeming to move not a hair's breadth
from its position.
*
Perched on dead stumps
by the side of the cottonfields,
flying off from the wires
along the track, hovering above
the bare brown stubble, we see them
again and again, nearly always alone.
5. Desert Sparrow Hawk
The grasshopper is held
much the same
as a child would hold
an ice-cream cone.
*
Flies are
repeatedly rejected,
even if
the bird is hungry.
*
In flight, the sparrow
hawk was silhouetted against
the evening sky
and its extended talons
could plainly be seen
clutching the body
of the little bat,
whose wings appeared
to be folded.