Based on my observations and anecdotes (which, as a park naturalist, enrich my perspective of nature), I have this to offer regarding red-shouldered hawks (RSH's):

* They have become more common in the last decade or so with the maturation of reforested farmland in semi-rural and suburban areas, at least in Geauga County and elsewhere in Ohio I presume.  Local Christmas Bird Count RSH numbers have attained those of the ubiquitous red-tailed hawk in recent years here, in Geauga County anyway.
* There seems to be a comparable population increase for RSH's nocturnal counterpart the barred owl which works the same habitat and wide-ranging predatory ecological niche.  I contend that every RSH seen in daytime has an after-dark avatar.
* Have become a backyard nesters in wooded residential neighborhoods where young perch on the top beam of wooden swing sets and call to parents for food, their plaintive "feed me" whines becoming annoying to suburbanites.
* Dig hibernating wood frogs out of their shallow winter graves to eat in late autumn.
* Make great use of roadside utility wires to "survey and prey", pouncing on voles, frogs, snakes, locusts, etc.
* Commonly end up as great horned owl prey.  I have several bags of plucked RSH feathers to prove the point. 
* Commonly have nests pillaged by crows in said wooded residential areas.
* Submit to hawk-feeding humans by accepting offerings of raw chicken and left-over salmon left out for them.
* Rusty breast feathers fluffed to loft heat-trapping down has gotten them compared to golden retrievers inviting a desire to pet.

That said, I rank RSH's in with barred owls, gray squirrels, flying squirrels, pileated woodpeckers as mature woodland wildlife that  have adapted to increasing and ever-maturing, yet fragmented (re)forests to become increasingly familiar wildlife in recent years.   Thus, they join the red fox, coyote, mink, red-tailed hawk, Coopers hawk, bald eagle, osprey, great blue heron, etc. as predators that have turned the evolutionary corner to succeed as "beasts of the 'burbs" adapting, along with their prey base,  to the commotions and alterations of the humanized landscape.  As nearly top-o'-the-food-chain predators that rely on well-honed hunting skills for survival , RSH's, however catholic in their appetites, are subject to the tough ecological edicts carnivores are subjected to making it unlikely that they reach such nuisance numbers as Canada geese, raccoons, deer, woodchucks, ring-billed gulls, etc. 




On Dec 28, 2012, at 9:27 AM, Bill Whan wrote:

> Scott--
>       NE Ohio red-shouldereds have suffered less than those in other areas
> from habitat destruction, shooting, etc. Back in 1903 Dawson regarded
> this species as second only to the kestrel in Ohio numbers.
> In 1902/3 the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology studied and
> collected these hawks here in Columbus's Clintonville neighborhood,
> which at the time was pretty much still countryside, but they remain
> over a century later, when dense housing predominates here (my
> neighborhood was built up in the '20s).
>       The closest nest is reused yearly; our neighborhood is dissected by
> ravines with dense growths of mature hardwoods, and this nest is over 30
> feet up in a big oak growing 15 feet from a house on the edge of one of
> these ravines, which has constant water flow. The birds are often heard
> calling in spring, and through the warm months have a habit of soaring
> high over the neighborhood in sunny afternoons. For a scientific study
> of urban Ohio red-shoulders, I recommend the work of some
> Cincinnati-area researchers: Dykstra, C.R., J.L. Hays, F.B. Daniel, and
> M. M. Simon. 2000. Nest site selection and productivity of suburban
> Red-shouldered Hawks in southern Ohio. Condor 102(2):401-408, online at
> 
> http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/files/issues/v102n02/p0401-p0408.pdf
> .
> Bill Whan
> Columbus
> 
> 
> 
> On 12/27/2012 7:38 PM, Scott Gregg wrote:
>> Scott Gregg
>> Beaver Falls, PA
>> 
>> I've noticed over about a 15 year period of on-again, off-again observations
>> that the Youngstown/Warren area supports a pretty substantial red-shouldered
>> population.  I have both seen and heard birds almost every time I'm in that
>> area. They seem to be non-migratory.  In my area, Beaver County PA, they
>> nest in pockets in suburban areas.  One nest I observed for a couple years
>> was in an oak on a limb that grew over a roof.  Most field guides list this
>> bird as a bird of the deep woods.
>> 
> 
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