Jerry - your report of Sharp-shinned Hawks doing an aerial display, and
Bud's suggestion that it's out-of-season mating behavior, is interesting.
Two week-ends ago I watched two Sharp-shins over Marymoor Park, wheeling
around at 100' or so and occasionally making passes at each other. First
time I've seen the Marymoor Sharpshins doing this kind of thing - usually
they come by my head at warp-speed in the cottonwood thickets at the end
of the lake, where I suspect they breed.

James West

On Wed, 27 Sep 1995 jbroadus at seanet.com wrote:

> ........................................................Bud also
> pointed out how hawks seem to be going through mating behaviour now due
> apparently to the day length being the same as in spring equinox, and when
> you start looking for that sort of thing you really see it-- lots of redtail
> swooping and showing off. Monday we saw two sharpies doing cartwheels, each
> as if at the end of a spoke of a vertical wheel exactly 180 degrees apart,
> then one on top would pause till the one below caught up and met, and they
> would swoop off in opposite horizontal directions. Is this the same mating
> sort of behaviour, or just enjoying the wind?
>