Learning to fly

There is a pair of hawks who live on or near my property.  I've never seen where they nest but I  see them hunting around the place all the time.  This is the time of year they teach their fledgelings to fly, and this year is no different.  I see them nearly every day, but it always seems to be when I don't have my camera .  There's always a good wind and the youngsters seem to enjoy that.  They're careening around, cackling, tumbling around each other.  The parents are more serene, more accustomed to flight, wings out-stretched, head into the wind, watching.  Every now and then one or the other adult lets out a long call and the fledgelings tack across the wind and they all move a quarter-mile or so.

It looks like fun.  It looks like they're all enjoying themselves.

I imagine my parents watched me learning to walk in much the same way as the hawk parents are watching their offspring learning to fly.  I don't remember.  I do remember watching my own children learning to walk, encouraging them, enjoying them.  It was fun.  For sure.  Still, I kind of wish someone had taught me to fly.