White-tailed Hawk
Buteo albicaudatus
(L 20" WS 51" WT 2.3 lb)
When perched wing feathers
extend well beyond tail...in U.S.
found only in far south Texas.
Laguna Atascosa National
Wildlife Refuge, TX
16Apr10
2nd year (red shoul-
ders but breast not
clean white)
A second ago my heart went thump
and I thought, “This would be a bad time
to have a heart attack and die, in the
middle of a poem,” then took comfort
in the idea that no one I have ever heard
of has ever died in the middle of writing
a poem, just as birds never die in mid-flight.
I think. (Ron Padgett)