Don's Blog Breakfast Guest 1-20-22

This brisk 20 degree morning a beautiful Hawk came to our new hanging banner and stayed. This Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo linneatus) was identified by Bill Rowe who writes the Bird of the Week section of the local Audubon Society's Tail Feathers blog. Red-shoulders are identified by their reddish-barred underparts, black and white checkered wings, and black tail crossed by narrow white bars.

We are privileged to have our wild life come to us. The other night as I got a drink of water after midnight, there were four young deer grazing in the front yard. Last fall a turkey perched on our deck railing. The hawks usually keep their distance but this one was interested in the small birds that come to the feeder outside the kitchen window. They were flitting like crazy deep in the azalea bushes and finally flew up into the tight leafy branches of the holly tree above. Our raptor stayed on the flagpole in the sun for about half an hour much to our delight. It was unperturbed by the banner intermittently brushing its tail feathers. Red-shoulders usually eat mice and snakes but I suspect a small bird could be a tasty morsel. Their call is a loud high-pitched 'kee-you,keeyou' which we could hear through the closed windows.