I Love the Rare

I love the rare and unique things in life.  I like the different and unusual.  I love my friends for their oddities and things they may not like about themselves.  I find it amazing when the rare things in life are just thrust upon you.  Such a thing happened to me today.

I was leaving JCPenney after a failed shoe shopping trip for the kids.  Only Colton in tow.  He fell asleep in the store and I managed to miraculously transfer him to the car still sleeping.  I go to leave the parking lot, I stop at the stop sign and out of no where across the hood of my car is a white flash! 

I'm not one to scare easily, but my heart was racing.  I look over and about 15 feet away landed this beautiful white hawk.  Now, a white hawk is not something that happens every day.  This hawk is BEAUTIFUL!  It looked me right in the eye, I fumbled to get my camera out of my bag and as luck would have it, all my settings are all wrong.  I did some product photography indoors last night.  My ISO is all wrong, my white balance not properly set for an outdoor shot. 

Then...the moment was gone.

The hawk took off.

My heart sank a little until I saw that he perched himself up on top of a street light.  I hung back, fixed all my settings, put on my telephoto lens and slowly creeped up.  He perched for quite some time, letting me get much closer than I could have ever anticipated.  Colton remained sleeping in the car with the windows unrolled no more than a few feet from me.  I wish he could have been awake to see him, but he is loving the photos.  I hope you love them too!

I have come to love hawks and birding this year.  I see them everywhere, but I don't think I will soon forget this beauty.  Now, I can't wait to show Maben...he is truly my birding enthusiast and one of the reasons I have gotten into it.  I am off to go get him from school in just a few moments, but I first had to share the truly rare beauty that struck me with its presence today.