Signs and portents ...

I've taken it personally that where there are usually 2-3 hawks in and around the area I call Foster's Hill each morning on the way to work, I hardly saw any all summer and fall. None since I spotted a dead one on the side of the road there at the beginning of summer. The remaining two disappeared - like they knew.

Replacing them are a pair of crows that were hanging around work all summer and into the fall. I had heard them cawing for a couple of weeks, when all of a sudden there they were - hanging around the newly planted sod or cawing from the light posts almost every day during the summer and fall. They were a huge, and a well-fed pair, too.

Now we are well into the winter months and Yule has passed. The pair of crows are long gone but there are now 3-5 hawks hanging around Foster's Hill again. Each morning and evening, on my drive into work and back home again, I see this 'family' of hawks perched on telephone poles, trees, fence posts, or hunting the area.

For all I've missed them over the past 6-9 months, their return restores my spirit.

I do have to wonder - I don't recall seeing a coyote at all ... I usually spot 2-3 during the year, but none this past year. Hopefully that will change, too.