"To a Windhover"

Windhover is a British term for our Kestrel that reaches us through a sonnet written by Gerard Manley Hopkins in 1887. That name weaves together various ways of experiencing the bird: with childlike wonder, scientific awe, spiritual loftiness, and mastery of the hunt. The Kestrel is our smallest falcon. You might notice it perched on a wire, zooming through the air, or hovering on the wind while surveying open ground for prey. 

Gerard Manley Hopkins was an aspiring Jesuit. He opened his tribute "To a Windhover" with a rush of worldly and other-worldly images. 

I caught this morning morning's minion, king- 

  dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding  

Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding 

High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing....

A Kestrel, or Windhover

This male Kestrel perched high on a branch above Halibut Point is patterned as though borrowing freely from a pallet of exotic pheasant plumage.

Its nature is not at all that of a pheasant as we see when Hopkins' verse follows the falcon into flight: 

In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,

  As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding 

  Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding 

Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!  

The Kestrel's mission is existential, not recreational. In its being it fuses the qualities of the wild. Although only the size of a dove it is a bird of prey. 

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here 

  Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion

Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!  

Kestrel chasing a Flicker

The poem conveys a Samurai's reverence for the vivid flash. Life crystallizes in the transcendent, the momentary, the momentous. 

  No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion 

Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear, 

  Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion. 

The ability to hover is a rare achievement among animals as large as Kestrels. They manage it sometimes with strong rapid wingbeats and sometimes, with perfect aerial balance, by harnessing invisible forces in the sky.

Soaring birds typically spiral in great circles by riding the rising air currents of thermals. Kestrels can stay fixed briefly over one location by heading directly into the wind. They might appear to be motionless but are finessing elemental energies by intricate positioning of the feathers on their wings and tail, while keeping their heads perfectly stationary to increase hunting efficiency. They defy gravity until they turn it to their advantage in a purposeful swoop.

With just such inspirations Ina and Herb Hahn founded a performing and creative arts camp for girls adjacent to Halibut Point in June of 1968. Ina wrote, "We decided to name the place after one of our favorite poems, "To a Windhover," written by Gerard Manley Hopkins. The "windhover" in Hopkins' poem is a kestrel, a small falcon much like  our seagull, notable for hovering in the air with its head against the wind. Its flight is described in the poem as symbolic of the soaring of man's imagination and the spiritual quest that informs great art."

The dream has been expanded under the leadership of their daughter Lisa Hahn. Dancers continue taking stage at Windhover to reach for their fullest choreography of stories and themes in movement, often accompanied by music.

Lisa says, "Windhover Performing Art Center is more than just dance now. It’s theater, music, dance, poetry and spiritual retreats. And it’s a welcoming community space where folks can gather before shows for picnics. This weekend is a rare treat on Fri and Sat evening when famed choreographer and dancer Margie Gillis & Company from Montreal performs under the tent at 7:00pm rain or shine. Come witness the best of modern dance this weekend and experience the soaring and awe of the poet in the Windhover poem as he describes his feelings. It’s about 'the majesty of the thing!'"