AND THE WINNER IS...

There is a woman whom I have befriended for over 20 years, that is absolutely, positively, infallibly without a doubt terrified at the sight of any living bird. If you think I’m joking I’ll tell you this about one of her experiences: she once missed a two hour church service because she refused to exit her vehicle; birds were on a lawn nearby minding their own business, enjoying a birdbath. For a long time, I never understood this phobia of hers. When asked why so fearful of fowls she usually responds, “I just don’t understand how something we eat talks, holds itself in the air just by spreading its wings, and so much more. They’re creepy and are able to do way too much to not be an actual person.” Well, after having the encounter I am about to share with you all, I couldn’t agree more. Now, I too, am afraid of birds. It took one encounter with a hawk to change my entire outlook on these feathered creatures.

We lived in a tenement right on the outskirts of a major city in the state of New York. All of the buildings were set up in fours to make it look like a full square, and there were four squares total. In the rear of each square is where we parked our cars. Directly across from the parking spaces were the backyards of fancy suburban homes; some of which were used as shortcuts to get to some of the main roads. These roads led to businesses that were within walking distance. I had my seven year old (at the time) son with me, and I had decided to take one of the shortcuts so that we could go to a nearby strip mall and do some shopping.

We got halfway across the parking lot when I looked up and saw two birds on the ground; a baby bird of some sort and a hawk, just about 20 to 25 feet in front of us. Nothing at all strange about two birds being on the ground on any other day. I said to my son, “oh wow, the baby bird must be learning to fly but can’t. I wonder what’s wrong with it.” Thinking that something was obviously wrong with its wings, I rushed toward the two birds to see if I could help in some way. Maybe the little guy had a broken wing of something and the hawk was helplessly trying to assist it. I thought, if something is wrong with the wing I can come back with a shoe box or something to put him in, and take him to a veterinarian; or if he is fine but just can’t seem to get off the ground, I can maybe toss him into the air so he can get a good start. Boy was I wrong!

What immediately made this situation so much more outlandish (to me) was that the closer I got to them, I could clearly see what was really taking place: the hawk was repeatedly stomping the baby bird, trying to kill it. It was like nothing that I had ever seen before; not even in a movie. Just as I reached about a foot away from the fowls and extended my hands in an effort to grab the helpless nestling, the hawk, with his head turned in my direction and his eyes set on me, scooped him up and in one smooth motion, took flight up into a tree. Not once did that hawk take his eyes off of me, and I will NEVER forget the expression on his face as he effortlessly floated up into that tree with that little bird in his clutches. His expression declared, ‘Bitch, I dare you?’ or even ‘Now what, Bitch?’ and I believe that if hawks could speak, those would’ve been his exact words to me. Without breaking his malicious stare, he then commenced pecking the poor birdie to death with his pointy beak. I felt a disturbance on the inside of me that I can only describe as baffled and amazed. My son and I stood speechless with our mouths open; well at least I know mines was. I couldn’t believe it! I stood in awe thinking something on the lines of ‘and the winner is...the hawk’. I gained a newfound respect for the animal, and at the same time, a fresh fear of birds.