The stuff you can’t see

I have seen one thousand red tailed hawks in my life. They soar overhead as I play golf, monitor students  at recess, and play in the backyard with my kids. If you live in New England, chances are that a red tailed hawk is flying nearby.

Yet I had no idea that as they soar overhead, they are able to keep their heads perfectly still in order to improve their ability to find prey, as this 2021 Audubon Photography Award winning video remarkably shows.

All these years, red tailed hawks have been flying overhead, staring down at me from eyes that were remarkably still despite the movement of the rest of their body.

Crazy. Right?

You can stare at a bird overhead for all your life and have no idea what’s really going on.

It’s a reminder of something I think about all the time:

We just don’t know what we don’t know.

A little less certainty and a little more curiosity is a good thing.