Backyard Protector – Red Shouldered Hawk

Juvenile Red Shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)

For the past few days we have had a new visitor to our backyard. This afternoon I was finally able to catch a photo of this juvenile Red-Shouldered Hawk. Today alone we spotted him (her?) sitting on our backyard fence five times.  What probably drew him to our fence was the bird feeder we have (and the subsequent tree and ground squirrels that mooch off the feeder droppings).  He seems to really like this particular spot due to the leaves helping to hide him and the great view of the hillside that our yard backs onto.  We’re happy to have him…since he’s shown up we haven’t seen a ground squirrel in our yard yet (the hillside his full of nests and they have been invading our yard for the past 6 months).

Stay as long as you want…the hunting is good!