19.75" H x 25" W Colored Pencil on mylar mounted on archival mat board. "High Level Vigilance" was exhibited in the 2009 Red River Valley International Juried Art Exhibition, Red River Valley Museum, Vernon, TX, where it was given the Bara's Award.

Chasing after predators turns me into a kind of predator. Getting close enough to raptors to capture good reference images can be a real challenge. This red-tailed hawk, however, was so involved in his own vigilance that he really wasn't paying any attention to me . . . for a few minutes anyway! He was photographed high in tree near the entrance to the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge near Anahuac, TX, in March 2006. The sky was truly this clear and blue on that gorgeous Spring day. "Watching" the hawk, as he surveilled his territory, lent me a sense of serenity and security!