For the past week or so I keep hearing a cat meowing around outside. He's not specifically around my place but in the general vicinity. (I'm fairly certain it's a he)

And one morning I caught him trying to get in through a closed window my cat normally uses during the day. And my younger female kitten (7 months) was sitting on the windowsill watching him.

My kitten has been spayed so she shouldn't be sending any pheromone signals but I can't think of any other reason for this cat to be acting like this unless he is interested in her.

I have tried approaching him but he just runs away and both times he ran in the same direction

Any ideas?

I can't really help but both of my female cats are spayed and are quite regularly serenaded by male cats in the neighbourhood. (Then they spray all over my back door )

I think toms like to "put down a marker" where the queens live in anticipation of them coming into heat - they don't seem to cotton on that she is never coming into heat!
I think that behaviour even extends to neutered toms too. Certainly I've seen an awful lot more cats in my garden since I got my (neutered) girl. She's not too keen on the attention - though there is one she seems to have a toleration of and I quite often see them sitting together on the lawn.

So spaying makes no difference? Well my male cat isn't going to be happy. He barely tolerates the kitten. (she's more annoying to him then a threat)

A complete queen in heat would be much more annoying to your old boy (and you!) than an unspayed one. I expect its the kittenish behaviour that's irritating him at the moment.

Nah my cat is just an old grump. She only has to touch him for him to grumble.

And oh boy do I know that an in heat cat is going to be trouble from what I've seen. I got her spayed as soon as she was old enough.

Sorry only problem with female cats they tend to pick up males even though both have been sprayed/neutered. Last two females I had both had 'boyfriends' never found it an issue though both boys where lovely, just had to make sure food was out of the way when they came around. Although I knew the owner of one of the boys so he was allowed a few treats when visiting.

Well I guess on the plus Houdini will have someone who might want to play with her instead mr grumpy pants sleeping next to me.

A vet friend of mine says that spaying female cats and neutering tom cats on an industrial scale in recent years has actually made the poor tom cats more active in looking for females in season. Neutered or not, the natural instincts to roam and seek a mate remain. And if they can't find one, they just keep looking.

We have essentially taken away their bats and balls for our own convenience, but they still want a game a of cricket.

My neighbour has a male cat that hasn't been neutered and he is forever following my female cat who has been spayed everywhere she goes and this is all day everyday. He sometimes calls at the window for her. He is a nice enough cat and she isn't bothered by his behaviour. This has been going on for about 6 weeks now and is always at my house. I don't let him in and he always waits outside and doesn't try to dart in when I have the door open. I tried googling on why he behaves this way, looked on here and I figure he is just biding his time. He is in for a bloody long wait though 😄

A long wait is an understatement

Has your neighbour considered getting their cat neutered as well? My male cat is also done and it's helped his wandering and fighting loads in the years he's been snipped.

My tom cat (the one who sits on top a six foot bookshelf), still has all his equipment.
I have to say he is athletic and slim, unlike most snipped cats who get flabby.

Yes he does go walkabout for days at a time, mostly in late spring/summer, as he hates the cold, but always makes it back unscathed. Don't know how much action he is getting, reading on here, all the females seem to be rendered infertile and uninterested.

We would not like that, now would we ?

This is the thing, an unneutered tom will have a much shorter life span (on average) due to infections picked up from fighting. FIV is a very real risk for them too.
Quite apart from the spraying

It's still amazing just how many unneutered Toms are out there. Just try having a female cat come into season, and you'll see.

Yeh, that's my whole point my poor little cat. All he wants is a little moonlight liaison once every couple of months, and when he shows up at the house of one female cat in a hundred that still has all the equipment intact, there are twenty other toms there.

Do people wonder why there are so many illegal puppy and kitten farms, we should breed our own pets really.

I'm having doubts about the gender of the cat that hangs around. I think he might be a she. I say this as my male cat apart from growling once on the windowsill seems strangely okish with the stranger and he's only been outright aggressive with male cats.

So it might be my old boy has an admirer rather than my Kitten.

I've got 3 cats all neutered, an 8yo girl and boy of 20 months and girl of 14 months. The 2 younger ones played non stop as soon as they met 10 months ago but over the last 3 or 4 months I've seen the boy trying out the mating on the young girl, mounting her while biting her neck and moving 'you know.' He does it fairly often every few days, she tolerates it for a while then just manages to get away from him, she might try some sort of play fight but he's just in the mood then and keeps trying to mount her again.

I feel a bit sorry for him but tell him it's better than him being unneutered and straying, getting into fights, getting sick and maybe never getting his leg over anyway as thankfully so many females are neutered.