The RED-TAILED HAWK –

There is a mesmerizingly lovely book, Matthew’s Meadow, written by Corinne Demas Bliss and illustrated by Ted Lewin…

The story is a coming-of-age story of a boy named Matthew who learns life’s most important lessons from a Red-Tailed Hawk perched in a black walnut tree… who seems to know all about Matthew’s deceased grandmother and the meadow she had made just for him when he was a just a baby.

The tale begins in a meadow of long, soft grass at blackberry time when Matthew is 9 years old… and ends in the same meadow of grass at blackberry time when Matthew is 26 years old and the father of a young daughter.

Each year at blackberry time, the Red-Tailed Hawk tells Matthew of all the things that nature teaches us… things like listening to the sounds of milkweed and the smallest of insects, things like hearing the sounds of leaves dying in winter, discovering the secrets of snowflakes, really feeling the wind, sun and moonlight, sensing the beating of a hummingbird’s wings, storing all of these gifts in his head, heart and in his imagination and thinking beyond his thoughts.

Matthew missed the visits to the meadow at blackberry time between the ages of 17 and 25, just as the Red-Tailed Hawk knew he would, for Matthew was working hard on his parents’ farm and coming into his own.

But Matthew still remembered the gifts he had been taught, although he wasn’t sure if they were his own thoughts or gifts from the Red-Tailed Hawk that perched in the black walnut tree and seemed to know so much about his grandmother.

When Matthew returned to the meadow at blackberry time in his 26th year, there was no Red-Tailed Hawk, but he could hear her voice yet again.  And Matthew then discovered what the Red-Tailed Hawk had been teaching him all along… that when his grandmother had cleared the land for him, she gave him the gifts of the land, the sky, the black walnut tree and the Red-Tailed Hawk herself.

Matthew’s grandmother had given him the very thoughts that he felt for the land… and he knew his grandmother had been listening.

What we discover in Matthew’s Meadow is the story of the love of land, of nature, of life itself passed from generation to generation to generation to generation.

We discover that messages come in the most beautiful and unusual ways.

We discover how a boy becomes a man… and how the man will pass along all of these lessons to his own child.

But what is the real tweet-tweet on the Red-Tailed Hawk in real-life ?  Here are a few little tidbits to pass along to your kids and grandkids to combine literature and life:

– The Red-Tailed Hawk is the most common hawk of North America, sometimes called the buzzard hawk or red hawk.

– The Red-Tailed Hawk’s scientific name is Buteo jamaicensis, the genus Buteo from the Latin buteo, meaning broad rounded wings.

– Red-Tailed Hawks are distinguished by their rusty-red or brick-colored COLORED TAILS.

– Red-Tailed Hawks like fields, woodlands, deserts, grassland, fields, pastures, meadows… and places where they can perch.

– Red-Tailed Hawks are good hunters with keen eyesight and feed on reptiles, rabbits, mice and similar prey.

– Red-Tailed Hawks have strong feet in order to catch their prey.

– During breeding, Red-Tailed Hawks are known for elaborate flight acrobatics, flying together in great circles at great heights.

– Red-Tailed Hawks mate for life.  The pair makes their nest of sticks as high above the ground as possible.  The female lays 1 – 6 eggs and both male and female incubate the eggs and feed their young once they hatch.

– Red-Tailed Hawks have a loud, raspy scream.

– A predator of the Red-Tailed Hawk is the weasel, who sometimes attacks the nest and kills the babies.

– The Red-Tailed Hawk is honored in some cultures as a visionary, a messenger, a symbol of discovery and a channel to peace and illumination.

Ah.  The Red-Tailed Hawk in real-life.

Reading the book Mathew’s Meadow with your kids and grandkids, with a little knowledge of the Red-Tailed Hawk in real-life, gives you so much to discuss… and your kids so much to think about as they embrace the literature.

The story gives us a great opportunity to talk with our kids about the beauty of the land, of nature, of LIFE… and how to stayed tuned into it all.  LISTEN.

The story also gives us a beautiful way to remember our ancestors and the stories and lessons and love they have passed along to us.

It may be a good day to visit or write a letter to a beloved grandparent.

Join me here each day in August for AUGUST TWEET-TWEETS on 365 Days of Literacy for Kids! A little fun, a little learning and a bit of “tweet-tweet”!