Red-tailed hawk attends memorial service
By Gary Bogue
Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 6:33 am in Mother Nature, Nature, Raptors, Red-tailed hawk.
On Friday, May 2, Frank Vizena was buried at the new Veterans National Cemetery near Dixon, CA, exit 60 off Interstate 80.
Gary:
The beautiful and inspiring ceremony was held under the committal shelter, but several people stood out from under it. As taps was being played, some saw a large bird (a red-tailed hawk, perhaps) fly over us. Then at the very end of the ceremony, the bird (same one?) flew up and over the shelter, cried out, and circled a few times before flying off.
Frank was in the Army 82nd Airborne, parachute division. Their symbol/motto was (is) “The Screaming Eagles.”
The event was witnessed by several people and you can make anything you want of this, but I have my own thoughts about it.
We all thought it was a beautiful symbolic phenomenon; a fitting end to Frank’s services.
— Ella Vizena, Danville, CA
Ella:
Mother Nature is a bit of a poet, don’t you think? /Gary
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May 13th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I drive by this cemetary regularly and happen to also be a birder and a naturalist. The bird that you all saw was most likely a Swainson’s Hawk, a State-listed Threatened species. They have a nest in an Osage orange tree along Midway. How fitting that a Threatened species would pay homage to a soldier.