November 30th, 2010

On a return trip to Tobermory at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula this past weekend – about 7 hours total driving time – we were treated to an awesome array of raptor sightings.  On even the shortest of southern Ontario road trips you’re likely to spot a red-tailed hawk or two soaring over the fields, or perched on a fence post or tree branch scanning the ground below for mice, meadow voles and other tasty morcels. But this trip produced a greater number and variety of species than any other I can recall – it was hawk watching heaven!!

Red-taileds numbered close to 30, the last one spotted, predictably, on the Conestogo Parkway between the King Street and University Avenue exits.  One or both of the resident pair can be seen here on almost any given day.  Another pair claim the Bechtel Park area as their turf.

We saw an even dozen rough-legged hawks, or “roughies”, one a strikingly patterned dark phase morph.  These birds are larger overall than the red-taileds,  have black patches at the “wrists” on the underside of the wings, banded tails and characteristically hunt by hovering in one spot above the field.  Roughies nest on the taiga and tundra of northern Canada, well up into the arctic islands.  We see them only in winter when they migrate south in search of food.

We also saw a number of American kestrels, the smallest of our N.A. falcons.  Along the roadsides they hunt small rodents from perches on the hydro lines.  See one, keep watching – you’re likely to locate it’s mate further down the road.

Two northern harriers made our list, a mottled brown female on the trip up, a grey male on the way home.  Harriers have owl-like facial discs as they hunt by sound. They, along with turkey vultures, fly with their wings in a dihedral, or V-shape.  This configuration creates drag at the expense of lift, and roll stability in turbulent air, always returning them to level flight.  These characteristics lend themselves to low speed, grass-top level flights, which combined with their ability to hover makes them superb grassland hunters.

Add in a couple of Cooper’s hawks – one of which was almost struck by the car ahead of us as it crossed the highway in a low-level, high speed glide; 3 flocks of snow buntings – a circumpolar, high arctic breeder; and an immature bald eagle spotted at Dorcas Bay on the Bruce and it was a pretty amazing weekend.  The only disappointment was in not seeing any snowy owls – something to look forward to on the next trip…