Dear List, Today I was in the Brandywine area of CVNP and witnessed a very impressive Red Tailed Hawk display. Actually, the entire presentation was first called to my attention by a majestic adult Red Shouldered Hawk, who seemed to be very noisily protesting the arrival of what turned out to be at least four and possibly more intruders. All were mature Red Taileds, and judging from relative size, three were male, only one was female. The four were flying fairly close to each other, though with my camera I never managed to get more than two in the same frame at the same time. I'd guess they were ranging from about 100 to 200 feet. For what it's worth, I managed to get one picture that I'm fairly happy with: http://www.whatbird.com/forums/forums/storage/1410/217026/RTHAbg.jpg What's got me puzzled about this, is that I've read a great deal about Red Taileds and never seen it mentioned that this kind of mano-a-mano competition is part of the mate-selection process. (What I've read suggests that a lone male will find a lone female and perform various routines to win her favor.) So I'm just wondering if I've misunderstood the story here. It's possible that what I saw were two mated pairs (though again, it did seem like three were on the small size, only one was noticeably larger [the one on the right in my pic]--and there may have even been a fifth hawk at one point, too). But what would be the occasion for such a gathering? Would two mating pairs come into such close aerial proximity to each other? Any thoughts? (On or off list?) Thanks, Noah (Cuyahoga County) ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]