Modern-winged antique

With autumn colors in the background, a northern harrier hawk takes flight in a field along the Umpqua River near Elkton in southwestern Oregon on Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021. Northern Harriers hunt mostly small mammals and small birds, but they are capable of taking bigger prey like rabbits and ducks.

 

                    To a Marsh Hawk in Spring 

(the marsh hawk has been renamed the northern harrier)

There is health in thy gray wing,
Health of nature’s furnishing.
Say, thou modern-winged antique,
Was thy mistress ever sick?
In each heaving of thy wing
Thou dost health and leisure bring,
Thou dost waive disease and pain
And resume new life again.

by Henry David Thoreau