Throw Back Thursday (TBT):
Red-tailed hawks are conspicuous now as they soar to claim territory and court their mates.
Click here for a timely article from 2009 that describes what they’re doing.
Watch for the male’s Sky Dance.
(photo of a soaring red-tailed hawk by Cris Hamilton)
Last Sunday afternoon, I heard a series of ‘bloodcurdling’ screams between my house and my neighbor’s house – four sets of cries very unlike any I’d heard before – very loud, and I did think hawk at first. Redtails frequent my neighborhood and my garden. Could this have been courtship? Would a hawk be that loud in hunting, unless it was claiming territory?
Sue, that was certainly territorial! They do that when they are warning away a competing red-tail. They were having a dispute!
It was pretty awe-inspiring!