One morning as we were watching a Red Shouldered hawk we noticed a squirrel run full bore to the tree the hawk was in. Up the tree went the squirrel stopping on the trunk of the tree across from the hawk. Next thing you know the squirrel was ambling out on the limb the hawk was on, trying to get as close as he could to the hawk. He got as close as 2-3 feet. He scrambled back to the tree trunk, hid on the other side and peered over at the hawk. After that first attempt I scrambled for the camera. The squirrel was now gawking at the hawk from the other side of the trunk of the tree. Slowly the squirrel crept out on the branch and again approached the hawk, this time getting to about a foot and a half away. The squirrel now had the hawks full attention. At that foot and a half point the hawk leaned or lunged forward toward the squirrel not leaving it's perch and sent the squirrel running....the picture above.
What's so curious about this behavior is, we saw the same drama played out about 3 weeks prior to this incident. I'm uncertain what kind of behavior the squirrel was displaying. Playful, aggressive, just plain dumb? I don't know. We have plenty of squirrels in the neighborhood and this hawk is a resident, we may see it again.
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