Red Shoulder Hawks by Springwolf ©2015

Animal Sign

Many different cultures believe when animals cross your path, they’re bringing a message to share with you. The Cherokee belief that Red Tailed and Red Shoulder Hawks are messengers of vision. When you see one of these beautiful birds, what ever it was you were thinking about at the time, is happening around you or it’s going to come true and manifest in your life.

It takes a lot of energy to flap wings and move a large body into higher flight. This is why you often see a kettle of Turkey Vultures soaring in a circle together. They are trying to catch the thermal and use the warm air for lift. Yes a flock of Vultures in flight is called a kettle. While a committee, volt, and venue of vultures refer to vultures resting in trees. A wake is reserved for a group of vultures that are feeding.

Like most large birds, Red Tail/Shoulder hawks look for these same warm updrafts to help them gain lift and rise up into the sky. While it’s common to see Vultures together like this, it’s extremely rare to see three Red Shoulder hawks flying together as they try to catch a thermal to rise up over the landscape.  This is known as a boil of hawks (two or more spiraling in flight), where as a flock of hawks is referred to as a cast, or a kettle (flying in large numbers). Continue reading →