February 20, 2021

I was inside the house this afternoon when I heard the loudest squawking out the front, 

like a seagull, but I thought to myself, 

there couldn't be a seagull this far inland.  

I went out on the porch to see if I could locate it....

it was coming from the tree tops across the street from our house.
Here's what it sounded like:

 https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-shouldered_Hawk/sounds
 click on the second one - that's the one most like what I was hearing

Thankfully he stayed around long enough for me to take a few pictures,

which helped me identify him as a red-shouldered hawk. 

click on image to enlarge

 

The photos in flight weren't in focus - 

he was moving too quickly for me to keep up with him...

...but I love this one - he was looking right at me and still screeching!

click on image to enlarge

This one is terribly blurry but it helped me the most with markings.

 

I found an article online about red-shouldered hawks in the Bay Area of California, 

which you can read here if you're interested:

 https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-shouldered_Hawk/sounds

What most interested me was the following:

"...what really got my attention from Meyer’s research on the Presidio raptor community was the early fledging dates for great horned owls and red-shouldered hawks. The earliest redshoulder fledging took place on May 28. Working back through the known numbers of days for brooding, incubation, and laying, that pair of redshoulders had to be nest building by February 1 and in full-on courtship for weeks before that, maybe even before the New Year. Similar calculations for the owls put them on eggs in early January, meaning courtship in December or even earlier."

So maybe our noisy visitor is the newest family in our neighborhood!