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This work by Matthew Wills is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Backyard and Beyond
Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world. "The place to observe nature is where you are."—John Burroughs
This work by Matthew Wills is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Backyard and Beyond 
Much as I appreciate the favor to humans tendered by the Red-tail, it is not healthy to consume rats. They all are carrying a toxin load which, while small, will bioaccumulate. Arsenic and other metals plus other neurotoxins grow in quantity with each rat consumed. Ultimately the bird gets very ill and dies from the poisons. And it’s not just hawks. I watched a Great Blue Heron sicken and die from a diet of rats when the lake in Central Park froze over. The bird couldn’t get to the fish and resorted to the available toxic diet. It took about a month for the bird to die.
perhaps a mating or soon to be mating pair?
Yes, most likely a pair, at play in the sky.