Amongst the friendly red admirals butterflies, the occasional black swallowtail and those pesky cabbage whites – who destroyed our lettuce – we’ve had some other flying visitors of interest. One of the most meaningful, to me in any case, is a juvenile red tailed hawk who has been frequenting one of our larger trees. Even if you don’t see this large raptor you’ll be sure to hear him! I know that this hawk is young, as his eyes are still yellow and his tail has not yet turned the red his names implies. While I can’t be sure of the sex of the bird, I’m going to watch for telltale signs through behavior. For now, “he” seems right to me.
Our visiting Red tailed hawk perched high in a tree.
The red tails around us seem to be very vocal, I hear the red tails crying as they soar often in the morning and I believe this little guy is looking for a mate because he is very noisy! Would you like to hear what they sound like? Click here! It is so exciting to hear the hawks cry as they soar; we stop what where doing just to catch a glimpse of them.
I’ve read that the red tailed hawk has significance to some Native American tribes, but I’m still reading up on that. One of the most interesting results I’ve come across is that Munsee, one of the tribes who lived historically in this area actually translates to “red-tailed hawk“.
I was also lucky enough to catch him calling on video. Please bear with me as I am still learning how to properly edit and annotate these videos and this is still raw footage.
Here's a shot of the red tailed hawk looking right at us.
Red tailed Hawk soaring.
