Just to throw this out there...is it possible you are hearing blue-jays?  I
just came back from Florida and I saw plenty of red-shouldered hawks, but
the only ones I "heard" were the jays mimicking them.  They can be pretty
convincing, too.  Just food for thought?




On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 10:16 PM, rob thorn <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> The last few days I have found several calling Red-shouldered hawks in
> different areas around Columbus. They include:
>  - calling bird in Dublin (Heather Glen) last Sunday
>  - calling bird in east Gahanna (Bryn Mawr Park) Wednesday
>  - calling pair around old nest in south Gahanna Wednesday
>  - calling bird in Worthington (Rush Creek Village) Thursday
>  Coinciding with other reports of the species being territorial (e.g see
> Robert Evans' report from Muskingum Co.), I have to assume these are birds
> that are trying to set up territories.  While this is not so unusual in the
> forested parts of eastern and southern Ohio, this species seems now quite
> rare around Columbus.
>
> Could it be that they're more widespread, but are more secretive except
> during this initial burst of territoriality?  I had seen the south Gahanna
> birds early last year, but not later in Spring.  I thought the location too
> suburban for nesting; now it appears that I was wrong.  I have noted
> calling birds in other locations in February and March in years past, like
> Blendon Woods, Greenlawn cemetery, and Alum Creek Lake, where I have
> difficulty finding them later in Spring.  Perhaps they nest there as well,
> maintaining a low profile the rest of the year.  Maybe we don't recognize
> the Red-shoulders in our midst because we don't hear them in later Spring,
> and they don't perch out like Red-tails.
>
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