Hawk in Copley Square

[mabfan]

(And no, he wasn't accompanied by Spenser.)

I work in Copley Square, Boston, and just before lunch I had one of my regular meetings. All the chairs were gone by the time I got to the meeting, so I ended up having to stand near the window.

I'm glad I did. Shortly before the meeting began, a hawk (I think it's a red-tailed hawk) perched on the window sill of our ninth floor meeting room, and hung out for the balance of the meeting and then some. I managed to snap the following six photos using my cell phone camera, so the quality is low. But when it's a choice between a low-quality photo and none at all...

Hawk in Copley Square Photo #1 Photo copyright © 2008 by Michael A. Burstein. All rights reserved.

Hawk in Copley Square Photo #2 Photo copyright © 2008 by Michael A. Burstein. All rights reserved.

Hawk in Copley Square Photo #3 Photo copyright © 2008 by Michael A. Burstein. All rights reserved.

Hawk in Copley Square Photo #4 Photo copyright © 2008 by Michael A. Burstein. All rights reserved.

Hawk in Copley Square Photo #5 Photo copyright © 2008 by Michael A. Burstein. All rights reserved.

Hawk in Copley Square Photo #6 Photo copyright © 2008 by Michael A. Burstein. All rights reserved.

As I was watching the hawk, I made sure to take meeting notes so I wouldn't miss anything. But I was experiencing that classic etiquette dilemma, to wit: when is it appropriate to interrupt a meeting at work to alert your co-workers to the presence of a red-tailed hawk?

The answer I chose was when the first presenter had finished with his presentation and Q&A. Fortunately, as I mentioned before, the hawk was still around. In fact, as far as I'm aware, he's still there. So we had about five minutes of everyone looking at the hawk, and then we resumed.

I'm sure my manager loved it.

Comments

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

Very cool! I had a similar sighting back when I was in a fifth-floor office at my company, but now that we're on the first floor, all we see is the parking lot :P

[blergeatkitty.livejournal.com]

Hey, I randomly encountered your name on wikipedia today as I was looking up the General Slocum disaster. :)

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what happens when one writes an award-nominated story to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the disaster.

[blergeatkitty.livejournal.com]

That's what Wikipedia said.

(Tell the truth... did you put that in yourself? It's okay if you did.)

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Someone else put in the reference (if it's the same one you're thinking of), but I do admit that I corrected it after I discovered it was there. If I recall correctly, it had been listed as a short story, and I corrected that to novella.

awesome!

[givemepenguins.livejournal.com]

What a neat find. Also, the building where I work is in your pictures. I've looked out the window, but I don't see the hawk.

Maybe he's there because he got kicked out of Fenway?

Re: awesome!

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Hm. I don't think he was the one hanging out in Fenway Park, but you never know...

[sorek.livejournal.com]

< begin whine >

How is it that you get great pictures with a cell phone camera that are better than some I've taken with a "real" camera?

< end whine >

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Did you really think they were great? I thought they were all right, but I could have gotten much better shots with a real camera.

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

That is insanely cool! I'm envious. Thank you for sharing the pictures.

hawk pics

[lcmlc.livejournal.com]

Those are really fine pictures, and the bird is most distinguished looking. Looks like they were taken from a still camera, not a phone.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

"We need to watch the budget like a hawk!" "Speaking of which, has anyone looked out the window?..."

[lisafeld.livejournal.com]

Man, that's awesome!