Sightings 1

"Hawk Takes Off" - photograph by Daniel Sarago, © 2006.

1. December, 2006
The Bernal resident hawk in the photograph is perched in the eucalyptus trees, on the southeast side of the hill. My story really begins when I bought a print of this photograph. I put it in my bedroom as high as I could above the bookshelves. That night I dreamed the hawk flew into my room—hovering over me, I could feel air moving around me from the motion of his wings.

2. In January, 2011 I began studying photography at City College of San Francisco. My first assignment was to take a picture of a “special place." I went up to the top of Bernal Heights park and took a picture looking through the trees at the city below. When I was walking back down the hill I saw the hawks, but I wasn’t fast enough to get a picture of them.

3. "Special place photograph," Gail Williams © 2011
A few days later, I went back to the to the “special place” at the very top of Bernal Park hill, and stood under the trees looking down into the city and across the Bay. All of a sudden the hawk flew into the tree about 20 feet from me (right side of photo) and perched on the large branch. We watched each other for a long time. He seemed to be saying, “Why didn’t you bring your camera?” I really regretted not having it.

I returned with my camera many times, continuing to take pictures for the photo class, but I rarely saw the hawks. It was always very cold and windy, so I decided to create a series of wind pictures for the Photo class final project.

Meanwhile, I also was taking on a graphic design final project— to design a two-color poster that promoted a place by sourcing inspiration from direct experience of that place. I decided to do a Poster of Bernal Heights park. This is how it went:

4. April 28, 2011
I headed for my special place at the top of Bernal Hill around 4:00 pm. The wind was so strong it literally pushed me all the way on the spiraling road. The sky was hazy, foggy grey, but the light was very bright. As I approached the top of the hill I saw two red-tail hawks in the top branches of the dark green cypress trees. The trees looked almost black with the western light behind them.

I think these hawks are a male and female pair of a family, or parent and child—one is larger than the other. They were perched on the very tops of the branches their dark brown feathers ruffling in the wind. The whole tree swayed back and forth as they calmly surveyed the view. They saw me, too.

. . . The story continues on Sightings 2