These two were still learning how to be hawks, both wearing the little metal bands the folks who track them leave behind, and neither one had a kind word for me. I got up on the ladder used to access the nest and stayed just at eye level, then waited out their opinions under a flat gray sky. The desert runs a long way behind them, which is the whole point of a post out here: it is the tallest thing for miles, and protects the young ones from ground dwelling marauders.