Nature Note:Red-Shouldered Hawk

I heard a close kee-yer call of a red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus),but at first I couldn't locate it.Finally,something made me look straight up,and there it was in silhouette,soaring right over my head.I was walking along a northern riverine forest,well within the habitat of this species.
The red-shouldred hawk dwells in and near floodplain forests from New Brunswick,west to Minnesota and south to the Gulf of Mexico,and on the West coast from Northern California to Baja California,Mexico.
The kee-yer cry of red-shouldered hawks is often imitated by blue jays-in fact,it's a favourite trick of blue jays to play on hikers.These hawks hunt from low perches for small mammals,frogs,snakes and insects.They are slightly smaller than the red-tailed hawks so often seen along country roads.
They spend the winter as far north as Southern New England and the Ohio Valley.With the warmer winters of today,perhaps they are even wintering into Ontario now.