So neat to hear all the stories of God's Creation!  We often see hawks and even eagles out here in B.C..  We are often at my parents house who are nature lovers themselves.  My mom has started to be referred to as "the bird lady" of our neighborhood. LOL!  She has the most amazing interactions with birds that I have ever seen, outside of nature shows on T.V.  They have several families of Quail ( babies are adorable) living in their yard as well as several species of finch, hummingbirds, canaries etc.  They have had several nests built on their property with the tiniest eggs I have ever seen.  The kids LOVED seeing these!   Sometimes they even have a blue heron land in their yard and visit for a while.  My mom is able to imitate a lot of them and they often come and "talk" back to her.  Some birds have even been known to come and sit on her tea cup while she is holding it!  The kids and I have been very blessed to witness a lot of these marvels first hand and have been inspired on a regular basis by the wonders of Grandma's backyard! It is a privilege to be able to observe God's handiwork!     -Miranda 

Wow!  We see hawks flying over our house all the time, but never have seen one up close like that!  How wonderful!

It's amazing when you are looking for it now.  We are so new to all of this.  Yesterday we were in the school/playroom putting together a blank world map for the wall and what was outside our window but our local Roadrunner!  He was right there and we got to watch him for a good 5 minutes before the donkey scared him.

I am so thankful to be able to "see" nature now.

Loved reading your hawk story, thanks for sharing!

DH and I are from Wyoming, but our kids have been raised mostly in the midwest (MO & NE).  So we just moved to VA last summer and the surroundings are so different - we are loving it!  We bought a house that is in a neighborhood, but feels like we're right in the middle of the woods, surrounded by tall, thick trees.  I've so enjoyed watching the kids take it all in.  The tell me how many different kinds of leaves we have, how many frogs and fish are in the pond, etc.

My favorite moment was when we were bbq'ing this summer and my ds12 calls us over.  There are a pile of ants moving quickly.  I didn't think much of it - then he says, "look, they're taking eggs from the queen".  I was in awe.  I loved that my son pointed it out to me and not the other way around.  Great moment!

Diana

WOW!  How wonderfully amazing Misty!  My boys would have been blown away to have seen a red-tailed hawk up close like that! 

We were bird watching today too at our local park.  Although certainly not that up close and personal!  lol  We also saw a hawk and many turkey vultures (not my favorite bird yuck.)  At home before we left we saw a red tailed hawk fairly close, it soared over the yard and you could see all the feathers.  Beautiful.  The boys were right out in the yard and then had to run inside to get the bird guide so we could identify it. 

Most of our nature adventures are filled with frogs, crickets, worms, and they are forever trying to track/catch a snake though!  LOL   boys

Carrie

Today is our nature study day and dad was home, so what was I to do.  Dad always throughs off our school day when he's home.  Not in a bad way just in a "wasn't expecting you to be here now what are we doing today" way.  He always has a project to do (like now they are building a lean to for goats/chickens).

Anyway so as he runs off to Menards for more supplies we are reading our science and what lands on our 16 ft round 4 ft deep Intex pool .. a Red Tail Hawk.  We were in awe, trying to find our camera and what not.  He stayed and visited for about 8 minutes but it was the best 8 minutes in the day (at least so far).  After about 5 of those minutes he jumped down to the ground and found his way to our little 3 ft round kiddy pool that the ladder sits in to wash feet prior to going into the pool.  He was washing himself and walking around in it.  It was a true sight that we will never forget.

This is God's great beauty that we don't always get to see up close but today his grace filled our home with awe and excitement.  Do you have any stories that you'd like to share here?  I'd love to hear about what you've seen at home or out.  I would love to share them with my children.  Have a great day and watch for those "AWE" moments.

Misty