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Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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sharp-shinned hawk

November 2, 2015February 1, 2015 by Dave Bonta

A sharp-shinned hawk careens out of the woods, dives for a junco, misses. It lands on a locust limb and ruffles its feathers.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black locust, juncos, sharp-shinned hawk
January 14, 2015 by Dave Bonta

A sharp-shinned hawk careens into a ditch beside a barberry bush where seven small birds have fled. It sits in the snow, eying them up.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags barberry, sharp-shinned hawk
December 13, 2014 by Dave Bonta

A sharp-shinned hawk flying three feet above the ground arrows up into the woods. The faint hint of sun disappears behind thickening clouds.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags clouds, hawks, sharp-shinned hawk
August 21, 2014 by Dave Bonta

Sun shining through fog and the growing tents of fall webworms. A sharp-shinned hawk sits atop the dead elm, his head swiveling all around.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags accipiter, elm, fall webworms, fog, hawks, sharp-shinned hawk
October 22, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Cloudy and brisk; the woods are full of falling leaves. A sharp-shinned hawk flaps and glides just above the treetops, heading south.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags fall foliage, hawks, sharp-shinned hawk, wind 1 Comment
April 15, 2013January 4, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Sleek silhouette of a sharp-shinned hawk. In the rosebush’s densely scribbled heart, the faint throbbing of something with very small bones.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags hawks, multiflora rose, sharp-shinned hawk 1 Comment
April 15, 2013February 26, 2011 by Dave Bonta

Gray sky. A gray breast feather floats down and lands on the snow. Ten minutes later, a sharp-shinned hawk appears in the big maple.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags accipiter, hawks, red maple, sharp-shinned hawk 14 Comments
April 15, 2013December 4, 2009 by Dave Bonta

A squirrel foraging in the leaves suddenly streaks for the nearest tree, barely escaping the sharp-shinned hawk hurtling through the forest.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags accipiter, gray squirrel, hawks, sharp-shinned hawk
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On This Day

  • November 2, 2025
    Clear and cold. The sun pops up—the pea in our daylight-savings shell game. A screech owl begins to trill.
  • November 2, 2024
    A screech owl trilling just before sunrise sets the small birds off. The forsythia at the woods’ edge is once again yellow. The clouds turn red.
  • November 2, 2023
    25F at sunrise. A ruffed grouse—the first I’ve seen since last winter—flushes from under the lilac. Perhaps the population is beginning to recover from West Nile Virus? I relish the small thunder of its wings.
  • November 2, 2022
    Sun through a scrim of cloud. From within a flame-leaved barberry bush, the crisp ticking of a junco.
  • November 2, 2021
    Two degrees above freezing with a dull gray sky—very Novemberish. Except the trees aren’t bare, the oaks yet to reach their peak of color.

See all...

Related book

Cover of Ice Mountain with a linocut of a big ridgetop tree.

What I do after I sit on the porch. One winter and spring's daily walks distilled into short poems with linocut illustrations by Beth Adams.

Header image: detail from Paper Garden by Clive Hicks-Jenkins (used by permission)

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