I looked out the kitchen window and there sat a hawk. A big hawk. Wait, there was another. Two huge Red-tailed hawks were sunning themselves on a limb overlooking our goldfish pond, not thirty feet away.
My natural inclination was to step outside and shoo the hawks away, but I noticed some songbirds feeding on the ground in the back of the yard, and they didn’t seemed concerned. Since I have squirrels to spare, I decided to leave Mr. and Mrs. Hawk alone and just watch.
Then a mockingbird showed up. This could be trouble. The mockingbird settled on a branch about 10 feet away and gave the big predators down-the-river, but they ignored the intruder. The mockingbird flew a bit closer, fussing throughout, but the hawks just yawned and continued to sun.
Finally, the mockingbird flew away and I continued to watch the hawks. The female, the smaller one, flew away, but the big male remained. I watched his eyes as he absorbed every detail, every movement in the yard. More songbirds showed at the feeder and then – uh oh – a squirrel was climbing the trunk of that very tree. One less squirrel, I figured, but the hawk simply turned his head, watched the squirrel shimmy past and continued to sunbathe.
Red tailed hawks are one of the largest hawks and perhaps the most common in Virginia. They are the ones you see perched high on limbs along our highways. They are often seen circling high in the air, sometimes in pairs. Red-tailed hawks like to build their nests as high as 120 feet, sometimes in a tree, or sometimes on a building or cliff. The trees in our yard are certainly not 120 feet tall, so they won’t raise their young in my yard, thank heavens. The females generally lay 2 or 3 eggs and take care of the feeding chores.
During mating season, the hawks are quite the show-offs.
The birds will soar high, making shrill calls, then make spectacular dives. Sometimes the male will catch a mouse or a vole before takeoff and actually pass it off to the female as they soar downward.
Red-tailed hawks eat a variety of prey, but mostly small mammals, birds and reptiles. They are especially fond of snakes. I was playing golf with my amigos at Lake Monticello a few years back, standing at the 10th tee, when a Red-tailed hawk swooped down with incredible speed and nailed a three foot black snake not fifteen from us.
The male hawk stayed on that same branch for well over an hour and never attacked anything. I guess he wasn’t hungry. He certainly had opportunities. One thing about hawks. Unlike cats, they don’t kill for sport. They kill to eat. One mouse is usually enough for the day and they don’t hunt again until they have fully digested their meal.
That afternoon, the male returned, sat a spell and then went on to wherever Red-tailed hawks go.
They are certainly magnificent birds.