Northern Harrier vs. Progress

 Female Northern Harrier, 1/2021

I first saw a northern harrier several years ago in the large triangular field bounded by Whitehall Road and Highways 24 and 187 in west Anderson.  It’s an uncommon hawk for South Carolina, present only in the winter, but often visible if an observer goes looking for one in the open fields of our area.  The harrier’s defining field marks are its white rump (easily visible when it is flying) and its way of holding its wings at an angle when it flies.  Its body is slender.  It often sails with the wind currents, and also sometimes hovers over prey.

 

The harrier is large--about the size of a red-tailed hawk, which is a much more common hawk around here.  Also for comparison, the tail of a red-tailed hawk looks like a rusty fan, but the harrier’s tail is long and narrow. The female harrier is dark brown, and the male is pearl gray.

 

That bleak winter day, I pulled off to the side of the road and watched that sleek lovely bird for fifteen minutes or so, enjoying the beauty of seeing it sail back and forth on the wind currents above the waving grasses, as it looked for small mammals or any prey that pleased its fancy for supper. I’ve kept that memory ever since.

 

Then, within months, “progress” took over.  The field was bulldozed and leveled.  A shopping center was built.  A grocery store, a restaurant, several smaller offices, and a sea of asphalt replaced the waving grasses.  

 

I missed the beauty of the field, and seeing sights like that beautiful harrier - but did get used to the homelike atmosphere of the grocery. It was smaller and more intimate than the other groceries in the area. The deli workers always knew exactly how I wanted my order sliced. One of the checkout ladies would ask how my school year was going, and I would ask her about her children. The store was a welcoming and friendly oasis on a busy road.  Maybe this change wasn’t all bad.

 

And then--another form of “progress” occurred.  The grocery chain announced their business model: to close that lower-volume store (and others like it), so they could build new ones in different areas that might produce greater profit.  Since the grocery was the anchor in the center, the domino effect caused many of the other businesses to shut their doors as well.  

 

And now the grocery store is boarded up and quiet, and has been for a long time. Other smaller businesses come and go in the center, but some storefronts stand continuously empty. 

 

I don't know much about business models. I just know that a nice neighborhood grocery has been closed for several years now, and a large and beautiful field has been covered with a mostly unused parking lot.  And I also know that northern harriers don't search for their supper over asphalt and empty buildings.