Toronto Raptors? If you Googled something about the basketball team and wound up here… sorry about your luck, but maybe stick around and learn about Toronto’s other raptors of the feathered kind.
Much like the basketball season that runs from October through to April, our visiting birds of prey go on very a similar schedule. We start to see some species of Hawks, including Cooper’s, Sharp-shinned, Red-tailed and others fairly regularly by October. Northern species of Owls also start to show up. Then by April, many of the raptors have seemingly disappeared until next Autumn. This goes for our resident raptors too, often seen more during this cold stretch of the year.
This month I thought I would share some of the sights and a brief re-telling about about an encounter I had.
Northern Saw-whet Owls are popping up about Toronto. I’ve been fortunate to see two so far.
Long-eared Owls are also here once again. It’s odd to me that I’ve only spotted lone Owls so far instead of groups of 2 or even up to 5 or 6 Owls.
Snowy Owls are back. Two have appeared recently along my nightly route and I randomly see them on my drive home from work.
Although Screech Owls are year round residents. I seldom see them until this time of year. I managed to call one in a few weeks ago.
Another nice treat is spotting American Kestrels. They are a rapidly declining species of Falcon. Any day I see a Kestrel is a good day. There is one hunting the fields near my work.
Red-tailed Hawks seem to be everywhere. Hunting here.
Or hunting there.
And sometimes seen successful with their hunts.
The most interesting raptor I’ve encountered so far this season though has been right here at home. A Cooper’s Hawk has had many successful hunts in mere days. The bright side to this Hawk being here.
Normally I see Cooper’s Hawks catch larger birds like European Starlings, Mourning Doves and the common Pigeon.
This one coming around has a thing for House Sparrows; or maybe it’s just because he’s got a clever and somewhat easy way of catching them? I’ve seen this Hawk use the brush pile to his advantage. When he cannot flush the birds out, he will find ways into the pile and just pluck the birds out with his beak. It’s something to see a large Hawk running about the ground, rather comical too I must say.
Then to see the aftermath of this unique form of hunting, being successful… wow!
First Sparrow catch on this particular morning.
An hour later, the Hawk gets a second Sparrow. Amazing how quickly the snow melted once the sun came out.
Then another hour or so passes and the bird is back for another hunt. Only this time he goes for a Pigeon that flew in and landed behind me. I had to pretty much duck after this photo because I swear the Hawk was going to go right through me to get to the Pigeon.
It really was a remarkable morning watching this bird. I did an indepth re-telling of it all in my own blog, which you can view here. Why watch the nature channel when there’s stuff going on right outside my back window?
The official start to winter is just over one week away. It’s going to be an interesting few months ahead. What are you seeing in your own backyard and nearby birding spots?