On our way to town Tuesday, we stopped along our dirt road to get a better look a Cooper’s hawk. I had hoped to get a photo, but the bird wouldn’t stay in one spot long enough. As we got closer, it flew further down the road.
We crept the truck closer, and on it flew again. After a few times of doing this, the hawk flew over a field to the left. At that moment we spotted a road runner, legs running as quickly as it could for the cover of shrubs and a fallen log.
The hawk dove. It missed, and the road runner ran around the bush to the other side. The hawk followed and struck again. Another miss. Road runner ducked into the brambles. Hawk made a short hop to the other side.
This cycle continued for a little while, the road runner staying close to the shrubs and log, darting from one side to the other. Soon the hawk landed on the upper end of the log and watched.
Road runner stayed put and out of reach. While these hawks are narrow and small, built for speed and maneuvering through branches of trees, the shrub and brambles were too thick.
Eventually the hawk flew off, and we left. I don’t know whether or not the hawk simply landed in another spot to watch the road runner try to make escape, or whether it had given up and went off to find another meal.
I’ve never seen anything like this in real life, only on television documentaries. All the while, I couldn’t choose which side to root for, honestly. I didn’t want to see the road runner die, but knowing the hawk might go hungry didn’t feel like victory either.
The honor of watching this play out was exhilarating, though, and I was grateful for the opportunity. If only I had had on hand a camera that could capture the exchange.
But I didn’t. So here’s my painting of a cooper’s hawk. I used a photo by Tamalyn Block for reference. She did have a lucky day with the right camera in hand, and I’m happy to have her permission to use it for making the painting. Check her out on FB to see more of her photography.
See the Painting from Start to Finish
For most of my work, I have a page to show progression. Click here to go to see this Blue-eyed Juvie in progress.
Contact & About
email: madison@wildozark.com
phone: (479) 409-3429
I’m a naturalist, herbalist, real estate agent & artist. Sometimes, I also write things. I began using local pigments to paint scenes from nature in the Ozarks in 2018. Medicinal herbs have been a passion of mine since the early 1990’s, and I studied with Amelia Plant to earn my Traditional Herbalism certificate.
Would you love to have a place of your own out here in the rural Ozarks? I’m also a real estate agent with Montgomery Whiteley Realty, under my real name Roxann Riedel. I have a separate website for that at WildOzarkLand.com.
For pretty much everything else that I do online, I go by Madison Woods, a pen name I adopted when I first began writing and then later with my art.
You can see all of my art at the home page: www.WildOzark.com, and my online shop is at shop.WildOzark.com.
I’m available for presentations and workshops, and occasionally I host field trips to identify plants, gather pigment rocks, and make paints here on our property in Madison county, Arkansas.
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