God and Nature Spring 2022
BUTEO (hawk) |
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By Cheryl Grey Bostrom
"Beauty, Oh," I think, whenever I spot one of these rough-legged hawks (genus buteo). Elegant, soft-eyed, and named for the insulating feathers that stretch to their toes, they winter here in northwest Washington. Every year I camera-hunt them on the Skagit Flats, where I find them hovering over vole-rich fields, their faces to the wind, or perched, studying the ground.
Spring will find them back in the Arctic (with all those snow geese), where they’ll bring lemmings to nests of up to seven waiting eyases.
Spring will find them back in the Arctic (with all those snow geese), where they’ll bring lemmings to nests of up to seven waiting eyases.
"Lofty"
“Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you...”
—1 Peter 5:5-6
"On rough legs?"
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
—John 16:33
"When you come up empty."
“But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”
2 Chronicles 15:7
Cheryl Grey Bostrom is a Pacific Northwest native, naturalist, photographer, and author of SUGAR BIRDS, fiction Award of Merit winner in Christianity Today’s 2022 Book Awards. A former teacher and columnist, she lives with her husband and two irrepressible Gordon setters in rural Washington State.