Photo: 9-24-19 juvenile light morph red-tailed hawk, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

Now I'm somehow "besties" with a male red-tailed hawk?

I was descending the steep concrete water channel to the arroyo valley floor this morning with my little rescue dog, Fergie, when I glimpsed a huge raptor, larger than a three-foot-wingspan female Cooper's hawk, skimming the sagebrush as it flew up the steep hillside straight at me.

I braced myself. I didn't know this hawk, but apparently it intended to greet me the way the local Cooper's hawk clan does..by:

1. skimming low over my head, blasting me with air in passing

2. hovering over my head, making juvenile begging/affection sounds,

3. (Female Cooper's hawks only) Flying straight at my head, doing a partial roll-over at the last moment and peeling off like an F-14 fighter, puffing air into my face from the air pressure boom.

Thankfully, the males keep a couple of yards distance and only puff air at me with their wings.

4. After greeting me, the Cooper's hawks frequently land next to me, or nearby, and stare into my eyes a while.

But maybe all raptors have similar behavior.

The strange hawk swooped up to eye level with me and passed only a few yards away, floating slowly past at an angle to show me his underwing, belly markings, and eye color, as the male Cooper's hawks also do, identifying himself as a male red-tailed hawk.

He then swooped up to land on a nearby telephone pole and perched, gazing into my eyes.

It was too cloudy for photos, but maybe it was the same hawk in the photo that circled my head three months ago?