On the Streets: Look Closer

Capitol Hill, Seattle, is a wonderful neighborhood. I'm sure your neighborhood is wonderful, too. I hope it is We should all walk around our neighborhoods with eyes, ears, and pencils like this - Being Grateful in 2021 with a walk through the Washington Park Arboretum.

Easier said than done. Too often I just wander along. I don't check my phone all that often, but I can't take the high road and claim I'm doing something more productive.

Occasionally I'll remember to look around. I was walking by Hot Mama's Pizza today and spotted a magnificent bird. I don't know shit about birds, other than that I'm generally not a huge fan. They're growing on me, but pigeons still give me the creeps. Sorry, pigeons, I know I'm not being fair.

Back to this bird. Again, magnificent. Stopped me in my tracks. Look closely.

I'm grateful my brain didn't kick in for a few minutes. I watched the bird from a distance as it was hanging around the plants you can see in the foreground. I wasn't sure if it had something trapped back there or was eyeing a spilled something or other (didn't want to investigate) off to my left. It wasn't afraid of me in the slightest. I was afraid of it getting annoyed with me and plucking out an eyeball...hence the keeping the distance.

I wish I had a different lens. I like walking around with the 27mm pancake lens (roughly equivalent to a 40mm on a full frame sensor), but it was not well-suited to this task.

Is it a falcon or a hawk? Or is that redundant? Curse my ignorance of nature. Regardless, I have either seen this one around several times or there are a few of them gracing our pizza joints.

Then the annoying brain kicked in. I really did stop in my tracks. Later I was wondering whether it's because my mind screamed rare or because the bird really is magnificent. I think both.