Red-Tailed Hawks in the Backyard

So I was lying in bed the first morning we were back from Seattle and kept hearing this bird outside crying like a kitten. At first I thought it was a kitten. Then I decided, "that's a really loud kitten." It was so close, and went on for like a half hour, that I finally got up and turned the blinds to find a red-tailed hawk sitting on the railing of the deck off our bedroom.

It was so beautiful and I just froze because I didn't want to scare it off. I backed away from the window and grabbed our camera, which luckily was in our bedroom. When I got back to the window, it was gone, but because I had heard it off and on so much that morning, I decided to pull the blinds up and sit and wait. Sure enough, in just a minute it was back.

I think it realized I was there and jumped from the railing to the nearby tree. My eyes were still blurry from having just woken up, so I had a hard time focusing the camera, but I did manage to get a few shots before it flew away. I came closer to the window and realized it had left its breakfast - some sort of bloody, furry lump - on our railing.

The next day the hawk was back. Only this time it had another hawk with him. They were hanging out in our backyard, mainly on the swing set, but sometimes just playing around in the yard, kind of chasing each other. One was larger than the other, and after I'd done some reading up, I realized the larger was a female, and most likely the mama to the other one. The smaller one kept spreading his wings slightly. At one point they both just lay down in the grass next to each other.

I don't really know anything about hawk behavior, but I'm guessing the mom was trying to teach her offspring to hunt.

I haven't seen the hawks behave the way they did that day, but they are still around. I hear them and see them all the time. They come swooping across our backyard into the trees. One day I saw three of them all on our swingset. Another day, I watched one of them shred a robin and eat him for lunch.

I really like wildlife stuff, (see post below with video from our Costa Rica honeymoon) so this has been very cool for me. I have the binoculars hanging in our kitchen, waiting for my next chance to catch a glimpse of them. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get any more photos, but I've borrowed Charles & Dawn's telephoto lens and I'm ready.