By the end of three weeks on the wing, Mary and Max were both proficient hunters and highly skilled aeronauts.
They felt at ease to roam across the wider area outside the ‘home’ paddock that was bordered on three sides by old stands for trees and beach front on the fourth. The grasshoppers and crickets were in abundance so they could spend their days eating, and snoozing. The adults no longer were providing food, but from several encounters I am sure that the female was keeping a falcon-eyed gaze on her offspring even if we failed to spot her.
They were old enough now to be self-sufficient, and still young enough not to take it all seriously. Here’s a few from what we were graced to enjoy.
Mary had hawked up a furball and shook her head to remove the fluids.
She had been working over a bracken paddock and slipped past me
on return to the home treeline
and scrub by the edge of the beach.
It gave the birds good vantage points to take it all in.
I knew I’d be making it into a mounted wall print.
the old stable building
She just had trouble fitting the wing in.
toward you and getting larger and larger in the frame.
when we were around.
Here, Mary flew in to sit on the top of a out-building and preen.
I had decided to stand near the base of one of two old agave (100 year old plant)
as Max was hunting around the second one.
But to my surprise, and pleasure, he decided to choose the one I was near.
Enjoy
Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST 