For the past couple of weeks I’ve been hearing hawks calling. I can hear them even when I’m inside, so they have to be close. It’s unusual that I’m hearing them every single day.

The other day I came home from running errands and saw a couple of hawks fly off from the trees in my front yard.  One of them dropped something.  When I went to investigate I found a half-eaten snake.

Are they nesting somewhere around here?  When I first moved in there was a pair of red-tail hawks nesting in the pecan tree on the back 5.  Maybe they didn’t like that I was going back there (never too close!) to watch them, but for whatever reason they moved on.

I would have sworn that at least one of the current hawks has a black head, but I just did a google search and there aren’t any hawks in Texas that look like that.  I know what a red-tail hawk looks like, but I’m vague on the other species. Did I dream that or did I just get some features mixed up?

Update Aug 24 2014: I was going to let the chickens free range in the yard this morning, but one of the hawks was lurking about.  He was “hiding” in front of the sun so I couldn’t observe him for very long.  I don’t think he’s a sharp-shinned hawk as they apparently only spend the winter in Texas, and the call is wrong. So is the habitat.  Although, this picture is pretty close

I’m going to rule out the gray hawk, too.  The range is wrong and the feathers on the breast weren’t the right colors.

A ferruginous hawk?  I hope so, but probably not. The call sound about right, but they’re supposed to be the largest hawks in North America and these hawks don’t seem that big

Coopers Hawk?  The call is wrong.

After doing some research, I’m leaning towards it being a red-tail hawk.  Apparently, their plumage varies enough that they can be difficult to identify.  The call is right, the range is right and they’re the most common hawk in Texas.