Alright, Non Birding Bill's cartoon post and my pelican post may have been a bit much, so how about a nice, cleansing northern goshawk release shot to start Monday morning?

Some of my family from Indiana came up for a visit last week and got a whirlwind tour of the hives and a trip to Duluth. On Friday, we stopped at Hawk Ridge to walk the trails (LOVE the Summit Trail) and when we arrived, I saw someone walking down from the banding station with a bird in a holder, ready for release. I glanced at the feet and tail and said, "Is that what I think it is?"

Debbie Waters, the naturalist for the Ridge said, "Yep."

My mom and sisters asked what it was and I said, "What do you think it is?" They've been to Frank Taylor's banding station a few times and they do a bit of birding themselves. They all speculated goshawk and they were correct. We watched the program and someone had adopted this goshawk for the chance to release it. I got a photo and love how her arms mimics the bird's wings.

I just showed this photo to NBB and said, "Isn't this cool."

He looked over from his computer, pointed to the lady and said, "FAME!"

Which I guess means the immature goshawk in this photo is now lighting the sky like a flame.

Fame.