This hawk, a red tail hawk, I believe, was sitting in a tree watching the gravel mining featured in Monday’s “Message of the Day.”

The tree was in the middle of field that thousands of people a day drive past without seeing.

It’s next to a railroad track.

A railroad spur, to be more specific.

The hawk was looking west.

I decided to try to get a closer picture.

I parked the car on the wrong side of the street and started walking toward it.

When I got about halfway there, the hawk decided it had had enough of the two-legged intruder approaching from the south.

It seemed to be heading toward the gravel mining.

Then, it turned north.

In my last shot of it this hawk, it was flying toward Downtown Crystal Lake.

I was parked behind Jewel at the Commons Shopping Center.

Here is what the road looks like between Jewel and Hobby Lobby, north of which the gravel mining is taking place on the old Pure Oil property.

It was given to the Illinois Institute of Technology when Ivan Hill, real estate agent and wife of McHenry County College board member Joan queered a deal my father was trying to arrange to have Pure Oil donate it to McHenry County College.

After its use as an antenna farm by IIT, Immanuel Lutheran Church bought the property.

The property is now being developed.

What was the clue to the gravel mining’s location in yesterday’s “Message of the Day?”

The lights from Crystal Lake Central High School’s football field, which can be seen right behind the blue steel holding the conveyor belt for the gravel and to the left of where the gravel is being poured on top of the pile.

All pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.