Hello to Hawkers (and others) Today around 11:30 am we had a woodpecker Zen Moment. May the big old oak tree live forever on Hawk Hill because first there was a Hairy Woodpecker. not headline news but got our attention. When the Hairy was done, along came a Red Bellied Woodpecker. Now that's a pretty good bird. We get them most of the time on the hill but this is the first one this year since the Watch started on Sep 1st. I'm looking around for Justin because he's never seen one when to our utter amazement after the Red Bellied flew off the Red Headed landed in the same oak tree. Gave us all a good look and away he went. I haven't seen one of those guys in 30 years. Now I'm sorry I forgot to include the Location of Hawk hill this morning and I must confess to a little bout of buck fever. The bird never came back and of course saved a few folks from a trip in vain but hey - that's beside the point. Who knows, the bird may still be around. There's lots of dead trees all about. So come for a try at Hawk Hill, just to the North of the Grenadier Restaurant parking lot in Toronto's High Park. You can google a map to tell you where to go from the High Park subway station. Its a bit of a stroll but a beautiful one. Or you can drive in from Bloor St. or Parkside Drive and park at the restaurant lot. The restaurant by the way has pretty good food which ain't cheap but its the only game in the Park. So if you come up to the Hill and there's no birds and you don't find our conversation absolutely riveting (hey, there's always a first) you can sit down to a pretty decent spread at the Grenadier. Speaking of the restaurant if you are helping us up on the Hill and happen see a gull and identify it as an Osprey, you have to buy us all a coffee. That restaurant has pretty good coffee. And just in case you're wondering what we do up there on that Hawk Hill the answers vary from "nothing" to "watching for a bunch of silly birds" all the way to doing an absolutely vital piece of conservation in the name of " Citizen Science". Today we studied clouds and air currents and saw and recorded (besides the Woodpeckers): Turkey Vultures 66 Osprey 1 Sharp Shins 17 Coopers' 4 Red Tails 3 Am. Kestrel 1 Peregrine Falcon 3 Un. Falcon 2 Un. Raptor 5 Hawk Hill is but one of many raptor migration watching sites scattered throughout the United States and ranging up into Canada. If you are interested in following the progress of all our migrating raptors, are merely interested in finding out how we do it or would like to contribute to a citizen science program that does a lot of good pull up http://hawkcount.org/sitesel.php. You will be introduced to, among other worthy venues, HMANA or the Hawk Migration Association of North America and a wonderful new world of knowledge. See you on the Hill Tim Mccarthy _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide
