You hang around our backyard long enough and you come to know something’s up when the mockingbirds discard all their calls save for one that fascinatingly mimics the screeeee! of a hawk. Whether or not it’s a raccoon or a squirrel or an actual bird of prey that’s raised their alarm is unknown. All you understand is that there’s a predator too close for the mockingbirds’ comfort and they screeeeee! repeatedly until it exits.
Loose interpretation: grab the camera.
Which I did, soon after locating the subject of the mockingbirds’ intense attentions, which was on a branch directly over the hammock and as usual was pretty well backdropped against the 1:30 p.m. June gloom backlighted by the elusive sun. Three presses of the shutter release later and the raptor flew, with this shot being the best of the trio (click it for the bigger picture):
With a lack of confidence in my species ID I’m going to say Cooper’s hawk.
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