A fun island fact is the hawks here love ice cream. Now, if you’re an ornithologist, amateur or otherwise, you might want to set the record straight and insist on referring to these birds as “Black Kites” which they are (even if they are abnormally large), but I’ll just call them hawks to make things easier (better yet to use the local name “Tonby”).

The first time I’d been told to watch my snacks if I chose to walk and eat I was with another ALT. They were munching on an ice cream bar, explaining that the birds love the frozen treats will an unbridled hunger. I laughed as they told me about school picnics where the other teachers set up speakers with high pitched noises to fend off the birds when the students ate.

The other ALT had just finished her sentence when a loud whoosh, rustle, and series of flaps was quickly followed by the indignant yells of said ALT who had just been dive bombed for their ice cream. I’d never seen a more serendipitous display of figurative example turned literal— literally as it was being explained.

Now I know you’re thinking, HJ, why do we give a spinners fig about hawks, kites, or avian ice cream bandits? Well, the answer is tied to my first couple months exploring the island solo. I’d get in my car and roam the coastal roads (all roads on this island neé archipelago are technically costal). A couple times I’d come across great groups of these birds— which felt bonkers because predators don’t typically group in large numbers. I’d see spinning wheels in the sky as the hawks flew over the fields during harvest.

I once saw at least six or seven sitting in a row on a fence across from an abandoned school. An empty road, school, and forest bound path, barren save for the birds. The majestic ice cream snatching streaks of swallowed sky.

With eyes like sunglasses, their pectin oculi serves them as they stare straight in the sun. Ultraviolet shielded and sure to slither down a thermal atop another poor lactose enthusiast.

May you avoid the devils drop of the local Tonby, should you ever set foot upon this once and current pirate island. You can learn of the great Tsushima marauders of the past as you walk the streets and keep a wary, non-pectin eye open for the winged bandits of today.