True Stories of the Red Tail Hawk

Since I started hang gliding, somehow I have a found myself in a relationship with this bird.. these stories are about that relationship..

In 1999, I was flying in Pennsylvania and looked down to see 2 white disks moving over the tree tops.. I was stunned thinking it might be an extraterrestrial entity.. however upon closer inspection, it was a pair of red tail hawks flying in tandem.  The white disks are white spots on their back at the base of their "red tail".  I did not know these hawks had these white disks on their back because I had never seen them in a picture before.. 

This photo of the red tailed hawk, taken from the Internet, is similar to what I have seen hang-gliding in Pennsylvania, but the colors were considerably more vivid and the white at the base of the tail was in the form of a well defined disk.  

On other occasions, when the head winds were strong, the Red Tail will alter its wing geometry to form a delta wing, this is truly remarkable as it appears to be a military aircraft with a very fancy checkerboard pattern on its wings with a red tail.  I never expect to see a picture of this but one can imagine it.

On another occasion flying in Pennsylvania, a flock of red-tails took up flying with me.  Usually they will keep their distance from hang gliders but in this case they surrounded me and flew with me for several minutes.  This may not sound like a big deal but it was !  First thing, I could see the fine maneuvers  they were making with their tail feathers and wing feathers which seemed to be in constant motion. 

The aftermath of this event was totally unexpected, a co-worker in my office showed my his bird book with a picture of the red tail on the cover ( I never told him that I was a hang glider pilot)  Soon after that,  I began to see all birds in a whole new way, I became acutely aware of the distinctive patterns on their backs - we all can see these patterns commonly from an oblique angle.  However,  in my case the patterns were being reconstructed in my mind as if I were seeing a full view .. these perceptions lasted a few months.

 About 2 years later, I was in a coffee shop putting sugar in my expresso and a fellow came up to me and asked me what kind of drink I had.   I recognized him as one of the pilots flying the day I was with the hawks, and I reminded him we had flown together.  He then recalled who I was and I asked him if he had seen the hawks ,  and he said, o yes, he had seen them flock around my glider.

Recently I have not done much hang gliding but I was been reading a book about the great Sioux warrior Crazy Horse.  His "Power bird" was the Red Tail Hawk and this got me thinking about my old associate. 

Immediately after reading this book, amazingly, a Red Tail came to visit me on the golf course in Norfolk VA !  I had never seen a red tail hawk in 5 years of living in Norfolk.   I was waiting at the tee box to tee off and I noticed I was being observed by a Red Tail sitting on a branch from about 25 yards. This is not the actual picture but is close to what I was seeing.  The bird was watching me play golf .!

I talked to a fellow recently who told me his own story of communicating with red tail hawks.  I have to believe at this point that Crazy Horse was not that crazy.  That the red tail is a highly intelligent creature that has a great interest in the human being and actually exerts a psychic influence in the human sphere.  This hawk appears in movies and commercial all the time. 

One more little story not so great - not too long ago, I heard that there was a bald eagle and a red tail at a nearby nature center.  I thought this was going to be really great to be able to go see these creatures.   When I got there I approached with much excitement the cage holding the red tail.  He looked at me in a way that was baleful - and sent me a clear psychic message:  I don't know you and I don't like you.  (he must have seen the humans as his jailers)     So I went to see the eagle hoping for a better reception - it was a beautiful eagle but sadly it was insane.  It just looked at me, opened his mouth, and started babbling incoherently.