The Fire

California is diverse if nothing else. Northern has the quiet overlay of fog. Southern has the outrageous whine of the Santa Ana winds. North has the genteel and giant Redwoods. South has the hot and blinding sand. All of California has abundant sun and surf and snow, and mountains, don't forget the mountains.

One other perennial that California has that seems not to plague other States is wildfire, that is, a set your clock annual event on a massive scale. They can be set naturally, as this year of 2009 in Northern California, by lightning. Over 2000 fires were set that way this Spring. In Southern California the fires are mostly set by arsonists. These people, and they can be teens or criminals hiding other crimes or even firemen looking for hero worship, time their destruction by the Santa Ana winds. Sometimes a careless act at a BBQ will set off a conflagration.

All of this about fires and California the Red-Tailed Hawk could care less. She had a brood to feed. The morning sun had not peeked over the east mountains of the Los Angeles Basin as yet. The colors were quickly progressing through the midnight purples to the royal blues to the lighter columbian blues to reach through the early red oranges and bright pinks to arrive finally at the yellow brilliance of morning. To finish the canvas before the hawk's eyes were the clouds adding even more beauty by reflecting the light so all who saw it could only OOO and AHH. It was truly becoming a Rembrandt entrance to a most powerful day. The keen eyed hawk ignored the beauty. She was looking for breakfast.

The hawk serenely scanned the brush clinging to the hillsides and down into the ravines around her high perch upon the tower supporting the high tension lines feeding the San Fernando Valley communities. She was looking for vermin, field mice and rabbits in particular. Something easy to catch and not likely to put up much of a fight and thus injure her. If a wandering Western Diamond Back rattlesnake should appear it was fair game as well. The hawk took note of the rising wind only briefly. She spies a cotton-tailed rabbit amongst the brushes 50 yards and downwind of her. The rabbit won't know what hit him. The hawk spreads her wings for flight.