After my nostril pics of the red-shouldered hawk, The Girlfriend went out to do some shopping, scaring the two hawks off from the light pole when the car started (it’s not that loud, honest.) Upon her return, as she was unloading the groceries from the car, she caught motion over her left shoulder as something passed and crashed into the bush right alongside the front door. As she turned to look, a red-shouldered hawk rose from the bush, grasping something green (likely an anole) and flew past her to alight in the treeline on the edge of the property. None of this was more than 15 meters from her.
The temperature rose quite high today after a week of winter temperatures (for NC, anyway,) and the anoles were out immediately; apparently, they don’t go into hibernation here but just hole up when it’s cold, popping back out as soon as it’s pleasant again. This is in marked contrast to 200 kilometers west of here where we used to live, where the anoles completely vanished by this time and didn’t reappear until spring. Huh.
Later on, we were both out back along the pond edge and discussing things about the property when motion caught our eyes, and here comes another red-shouldered hawk. Same one? Can’t say for sure. This one made a beeline dead at us, passed just a few meters directly overhead, and came to rest on a branch above and behind us – there’s no way that it was unaware of our presence, nor could we see any reason for this particular flight path. Quite loudly, I asked the hawk, “You aren’t scared of anything, are you?” which did not garner a reply, yet didn’t scare it off, either.
But yeah, I think we’re getting the hint that this is a shared property, and they were here first.