And Now For a Glimpse of Something Wild

It was another beautiful, crisp, cool September morning. I caught a bus to campus that let me off behind the Libraries. I walked from there down through campus to a meeting in one of Penn State's downtown buildings.

As I was approaching the engineering buildings near the duck pond (Electrical Engineering West, to be specific, or EE West, as we always called it), I heard and saw something huge plummeting from the sky. It was not just falling; it was ACCELERATING downward, picking up speed!

I realized in an instant that it was a hawk in search of prey. And of course, I had my camera (I always do), and I whipped it out and sped up, trying to get a closer look.

The bird landed on the ground somewhere off to my right. It must have missed its prey because it came up empty. The next thing I saw was the huge bird swooping back up off the ground and landing on the railing along the stairwell to EE West, where it sat in the morning sun, looking like it owned the place!

My jaw dropped, and I have to admit that I laughed out loud, I was so delighted! And, of course, I started super-zooming on the camera . . . Steady on the hands; oh, steady . . .

Students walked right past the bird, completely oblivious. Did they think it was fake? Did they think this sort of thing happens every day? Um, hello, that's a WILD HAWK!!

Finally, one student - who was, I swear, no more than three feet from the bird - looked up and saw the hawk, did a double-take, made a shocked face, and whipped out a cell phone to get just one picture. (I have to admit I'm dying to see how HIS shot turned out.) An instant later, the hawk flew away.

I checked the time stamps on my pictures, and it turns out the hawk sighting lasted just 30 seconds, during which I got off 9 shots, all super-zoomed. I am including one of the sharper images; in the background, you can see EE West and the railing the bird is sitting on.

Some think that Penn State is a civilized place. Almost a tiny city within itself, really: a city of students and professors and staff. But I will tell you a secret. Do not be fooled by appearances. In the center of that tiny city beats the untamed heart of something wild.

The song to accompany this image is Stevie Nicks, with The Wild Heart, the title track to her 1983 second album. It's one of my favorites. If you like this tune, you just might enjoy listening to the whole album.

Bonus: two prior blip shots of our campus hawks
November 25, 2013  A View to a Kill
January 6, 2015 A Glimpse of Something Wild