That’s not a new seedling, it’s actual new growth sprouting from a node on last year’s cherry tomato that I’d thought long dead.

So.

I was out checking the tiny bits of green appearing on tree after tree yesterday when movement caught my eye and I looked up.

And there, just flapping down onto the power line, was a Cooper’s hawk in the late sun. I’m a little out of practice so I couldn’t tell you by the size whether it was a male or a female, but it was content to let me stand there thrilled at its presence. So I’m guessing male, since back when we had a pair nesting above the house it was always the male that was curious about those funny humans inside that big windowed box and occasionally outside of it. I would bird watch; it would people watch.

Its mate was far warier.

I wondered how many generations removed this one might be from our inquisitive Coopernicus. The fledgling that hopped through my amaryllis pots some years ago with a parent guarding nearby would be getting old now.

It was just so good to see a hawk in my yard again.