Some days you go to the birds, other days they come to you. This hawk was in our front yard around 9 a.m.

I went out to the garage to chat with my husband who was just back from a bike ride. I heard a persistent, shrill calling from the tall Norfolk Island pine out front. I couldn’t see the bird at first because it was not at the tip top where ospreys and kestrels like to perch.

The sound: Red-shouldered Hawk calling.

Some Blue Jays were flying around, yelling at the hawk. They like to make a fuss about the neighborhood hawks and owls. There were other birds around that didn’t seem too worried about this hawk. But I didn’t see any squirrels out in the open while the hawk was here.

Red-shouldered Hawks eat mostly small mammals, lizards, snakes, and amphibians. They hunt from perches below the forest canopy or at the edge of a pond, sitting silently until they sight their prey below. Then they descend swiftly, gliding and snatching a vole or chipmunk off the forest floor. They also eat toads, snakes, and crayfish. They occasionally eat birds, sometimes from bird feeders; recorded prey include sparrows, starlings, and doves.

A pair of Red-Shouldered Hawks, John James Audubon.