‘io kalikimaka — ‘ioke for short — showed up a few days before Christmas. Arvin and I came home one afternoon and saw our neighbors crouched on the ground observing something. Beneath the o’hia trees was a beautiful young hawk with a white face and chest marked with soft brown spots like sable.
Curious, ‘ioke didn’t approach neighbor Sev too closely, but she eyed him carefully.
‘ioke took a short flight over to one of the kukui trees on Bob & Andy’s driveway. We brought her some meat, which Sev fed to her from the end of a stick. She came up to him, snatched the meat with her right talon, then scampered off a few feet away to enjoy her meat in the middle of the driveway.
After a sating meal of raw beef and chicken, ‘ioke took up roost in a tree on the edge of the hala grove.
Jeff and ‘ioke: our first feeding day. I named her ‘ioke because in Hawaiian ‘io = hawk and kalikimaka = christmas. ‘ioke is short for ‘io kalikimaka…
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