In the past few weeks, I’ve noticed several instances of a hawk flying fast and low through our back yard. I had assumed it was an accipitor — either a Cooper’s or a sharp-shinned hawk that specializes in hunting in open forests like back yards. But while my husband and I were out working in the garden this afternoon, a cacophony of squawks alerted us to a red-tailed hawk sitting in the neighbor’s tree just over the fence.

It was a little small, as red-taileds go, about the same size as a big Cooper’s, so I didn’t feel too bad for missing the identification as it flashed by. Because the bird was on the small side, I am assuming it’s a male — male raptors are significantly smaller than females.

He was very intent on watching everything that was going on in our little corner of the neighborhood. At several points, he turned his head around 180o, so that it was facing behind him. I didn’t know that hawks could do that. I don’t know if their extremely good eyesight means that they have the same problem with their eyes being fixed in their heads that owls do. But it’s certainly possible.

Beyond that, he just kinda hung out. He stretched a lot…

… and preened a lot. This went on for 45 minutes. I wanted to take a photo of him taking off, but I was beginning to get hot and tired.

But he was so boring that smaller birds started coming back. There are two finches in the tree with the hawk!

And then he began to ruffle his tail feathers. This is often a sign in birds that have been perching for a while that they are going to take off — just making sure everything is flight-ready. That makes sense. Pilots walk around their airplanes, checking them out, before they take off.

And then …

Lift off!

My patience paid off.