The Common Black Hawk and the memories of Icarus .

Text and photography by Javier Martín

I’m sitting while letting my mind flow in front of the ocean view at the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, in Port Limon.

The ocean view is surrounded by a frame of tropical wet forest tress and palms that swing their leaves like golden hairs at the unstable and erratic rhythm of the marine breeze.

Suddenly, I perceive a tiny movement of black dots far away at the horizon; instants later I can see a couple of common black hawks soaring and frolicking majestically in the air

I quickly up lifted my body and went running to bring my camera, once back I promptly set up the camera parameters of light and others, and the session started.

They come near by quickly, and perform a beautiful sequence of acrobatic movements in front of me; the camera is bursting shots per second, everything happens so fast, they leave...

Seconds later you start to ask a bunch of questions to yourself; why don’t I have a longer zoom? Why don’t they stay longer?

I start viewing the material I got; I get both happy and sad, a contradiction, I want more, more details, a better framing, I think I could have used light on a better way, I feel I could have used a closer view rather than the farther one I took, in this way, I start to brainstorm between different technical positions, of “how could I have done it better”, to repair what cannot be repaired. –“I will have to wait for the next time in the future to take the pictures again”. –“This is a limitation”, I think

The technical review:
Common Black Hawk, Buteogallus anthracinus.

This hawk is related to shore or close to it, including estuaries and mangroves, they can also be observed a little deeper inland, especially following rivers.

Their diet is based mainly on crabs, which they combine with reptiles and frogs, sea turtle eggs, and recently hatched sea turtles. They usually perch near the ground where they spend long periods of time waiting for their prey. They like to fly and soar near noon, especially during mating season.

It’s range of distribution goes from south west USA and West Indies, to North West Peru and Guyana.

Life’s limitations

Some hours have passed, in front of a sunset that begins to show I return to my thoughts in front of the ocean, I remember past times in this same place, when romance was intense and showed the best of it, while in front of us, this same birds soared gracefully and we spend lovely moments together, and I wonder and ask myself –“How is she?” How is her magical world of mermaid chants?

My pleasure was to see her happy, watch her staring eyes and feel her presence so close to me.

Would it be that hawks feel the same while they fly together seducing each other? Would it be this the reason why Icarus, felt so much pleasure flying, that he was unable to control itself, reaching dangerously close to the sun’s heat, that melted away the wax that handled all the feathers to his artificial wings?  

Even though I deeply wish to fly with them in order to find out answers to my questions, I understand humans can’t fly, regardless of what Daedalus and  Icarus opinion was.

In the same way, life doesn’t aloud me to understand what she is living right now.

To accept and understand a limitation like that; that the wax that glues the feathers of the wings is going to melt if you dare to get to close to the sun -a limitation that Icarus didn’t accepted-  will protect you from falling into the ocean like it happened to him.

I believe that flying low is a good thing to do –If I ever have Icarus wings-.

Like the I ching says: -“Flying in a low level is the best virtue of a bird that has its nest close to the ground”.

So it’s better to watch the hawks fly, without pretending to do the same, regardless the feeling of rebellion, regardless the need of flying, this dream of flying, can be expressed in photography, in an attitude towards loving art, towards living art.