Q. I have seen a lot of pairs of redtail hawks in and around Monona. One of the birds was high on a treetop above me, and was hissing very loudly, like a cat. Can you explain this?
A. It’s a young bird begging for food, says Stanley Temple, a professor of wildlife ecology at UW-Madison. “This is the time of year when the young redtails have left the nest, and they are wandering about and getting hungry, so they beg.”