Micro-Season: “The Young Hawk Learns to Fly” (2023)

July 17 to July 21 is the micro-season of “The Young Hawk Learns to Fly ”.  This is the third micro-season of the season of Minor Heat.  All the micro-seasons within Minor Heat are:

• Hot Winds Blows (Jul. 7 – Jul. 13)
• The First Lotus Blossoms (Jul 12 – Jul 16)
• The Young Hawk Learns to Fly (Jul 17 – Jul 21)

These seasons were established in 1685 by Japanese astronomer Shibukawa Shunkai. While they are specific to Japan, you can use these seasons as a starting point for your exploration of the natural world.

To celebrate this season, we will learn about bird wings and read haiku by Basho, Issa, Shiki, Avila, and Reichhold

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Learning to Fly

Birds can fly because of their wings, and when you examine the different parts that make up the wing and how they work together, it is truly fascinating.

Flight Feathers

Flight feathers begin to develop during the fledgling stage of a bird’s life cycle. They are categorized into three types, each playing a distinct role during flight.

• Primary flight feathers are the longest and outermost feathers on a bird’s wing. They form the wingtip and are used for forward thrust.
• Secondary flight feathers are the inner flight feathers that are closer to the bird’s body. They help the bird gain lift and soar.
• Tertials are the innermost flight feathers and are used for stability during flight.

Bones

The bird’s wing is considered the forelimb of the bird.  Despite the significant visual differences between a bird’s forelimb and a human’s, they share common anatomical names for their bones, such as shoulders, forearms, and hands. 

Bird’s bones are also said to be hollow.  This is basically true, but a more correct description of the bones would be to call them “pneumatized”.⁽³⁾ Pneumatized is another way to say that the bones are full of spaces for air. Researcher Matt Wedel at the University of California Berkley explains that “as a baby bird grows, the air sacs that make up its lungs ‘invade’ its bones, forming a bunch of tiny hollows. The air sacs stay attached to these hollows for a bird’s life. This, along with a forward-and-backward arrangement of air sacs, helps give birds a little-known superpower: They can take in oxygen while both inhaling and exhaling.” ^(3,4)  

Muscles

The pectoralis major and the supracoracoideus are the two major muscles that move a bird’s wing.  Both these muscles connect to a bony ridge on the breastbone.  This bony ridge is called the keel.

The pectoralis major is used to lower the wings while the supracoracoideus is used to raise the wings. 

The supracoracoideus muscle loops over the shoulder and then anchors to the top side of the wing so that it can lift the wing when contracted.⁽²⁾ 

Types of Wings

Bird wings also come in different shapes depending on the type of bird and their primary flying style.

• Elliptical Wings are round and compact. They are good for fast takeoffs, bursts of speed, and tight maneuvering. Birds with this type of wing are sparrows and ravens

• Active soaring wings are long and narrow. These types of wings allow birds to soar for long periods of time.  These wings are also useful for catching wind currents.  Birds with this type of wing include gulls and albatrosses.

• Passive soaring wings have long primary and secondary feathers.  The primary feathers are able to spread out and catch “thermals”, or rising columns of warm air.  Birds with this type of wing include eagles, hawks, and vultures.

• High-speed wings are also long and thin, but not nearly as long and thin as the active soaring wings. These types of wings allow birds to maintain a high speed of travel for long distances.  Birds with this type of wing include falcons, swifts, and terns.

• Hovering wings are small and fast-moving wings.  Birds with this type of wing also have specially adapted nerves and muscles that help with rapid wing movements.  An example of a bird with hovering wings is the hummingbird.

Seasonal Haiku

The “Hawk” is listed as a summer kigo in Jane Reichhold’s A Dictionary of Haiku.  However, “hawk” is not a summer kigo in other places.

In The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words as selected by Kenkichi Yamamoto, “hawk” is a winter kigo. Likewise, in The World Kigo Database, the “hawk” is a winter kigo,(“hawk in the cold”) and possibly an autumn kigo (“Bad-tempered hawk”). 

Although not indicated by all the sources listed above, I do think a case can be made for “hawks leaving the nest” or “hawk takes first flight” as a potential summer kigo.  This would be supported by data collected by the Cornell Labs Bird Cams which indicate that young red-tailed hawks become fledglings in June.  “Fledgling” is the term used for a bird who has developed flight feathers and is just learning how to fly. 

Now, with all this in mind, let’s read some haiku about hawks.

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Basho

the hawk's eyes
have darkened now: 
calling quail 
(translated by David Landis Barnhill)

more than dream
the hawk of reality
heartens me
(translated by David Landis Barnhill)

Cape Irago: 
nothing can match
the hawk’s cry. 
(translated by David Landis Barnhill) 

Larry Bole, who cites the work of David Barnhill, explains the potential meaning behind this last haiku.

“Cape Irago, at the tip of a peninsula, was famous in waka for its hawks. It also was associated with the exiled Prince Oomi in the early ‘Man’yoshu’ poetry collection…” 

Barnhill continues, “When Basho wrote this haiku, he was also visiting a disciple, Tokoku, who was living there.” Barnhill describes Tokoku as having moved to Irago after “suffering financial difficulties.,”⁽⁶⁾

Larry Bole then adds to the commentary, “But others describe Tokoku as being in exile there (Shirane), and having his hideout there (Sanga). Some commentators suggest that seeing a hawk is a veiled reference to Basho seeing Tokoku there.”⁽⁶⁾

Issa

crow at the gate
all night used by the hawk...
nest warmer
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

Shiki

Toward those short trees
We saw a hawk descending
On a day in spring.
(retrieved from haiku-poetry.org)

Kat Avila

cry of the hawk
long after
it has disappeared

Jane Reichhold

lunchtime
overlooking the road ahead
a hawk

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Haiku Invitation

This week’s haiku invitation is to write a haiku or senryu that references a hawk or other bird of prey. 

Share your haiku in the comments below, or post on your own page and link back to this post. I can’t wait to read what you write!  

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Thank You!

Resources

1. “All About Bird Wings and Flight Feathers”; BirdsandBlooms.com
2. Heisman, Rebecca; “Extraordinary Appendages: An Introduction to Bird Wings”: American Bird Conservancy
3. Hamer, Ashley. “Why do birds have hollow bones?”; Discovery.com
4. Wedel, Matt; “Researcher Profile”; University of California Berkley
5. “Birds and their wing shape”; The Cornell Lab of Ornithology 
6. “Hawks (taka)”; World Kigo Database
   

Basho’s haiku was retrieved from Matsuo Bashō’s haiku poems in romanized Japanese with English translations. Issa’s haiku was retrieved from David G. Lanoue’s HaikuGuy.com.  Jane Reichhold’s haiku was retrieved from  A Dictionary of Haiku.  Kat Avila’s haiku was retrieved from Haiku Enlightenment by Gabriel Rosenstock.  Shiki’s haiku was retrieved from haiku-poetry.org