Canada Jane » hawk

Hawk Eye

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:55:14 +0000

Just spotted this chap eyeing up our squirrels. Fortunately they all saw him first and scarpered.

Great pics of our hawk

admin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:47:30 +0000

I have mentioned the sharp-shinned hawk we have as a visitor before but we have never been able to get as good a photo as hubby managed to get today. The hawk landed on a tree just outside our bedroom window, so he was close enough to get a really good set of pics. Not sure we will ever get this chance again.

Isn’t he just stunning (or she!)

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Sharp-shinned hawk

admin — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:00:53 +0000

We were able to witness a fantastic and sad thing today. A sharp-shinned hawk, which we often see about, decided to catch one of the mourning doves in our garden and proceeded to eat him. He was in the garden plucking and shredding for ages and I managed to get a few photos.

At least they only do this to get food and not to play with like some animals. He ate everything and when he left all that was left were feathers and feet. It was quite a mess but will be covered by snow in the morning.

Our black squirrel is still around – three days now and looks to have made a nest in the nesting box. This will be interesting to watch.

Here is some video we took.

Temps soar to +2C

admin — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:12:33 +0000

This morning we were sitting eating breakfast when the Blue Jays started screeching, this is normally a sign of a predator so we scanned the landscape and spotted the Northern Goshawk on the top of a distant tree. This is one of the largest hawks we get and he appears every so often.

I managed to zoom in with the scope and get these pics, but they are not great as he was a long way away.

He is a beautiful bird with white stripes over each eye – however I don’t want him to prey on our garden wildlife! But as every in nature, what will be, will be.

We are still experiencing very cold temps into the -20′s excluding windchill which takes it to nearer -30C. Last Friday we experienced a mini heat wave and by early evening temps had risen to a barmy +2C, however by Saturday morning we were down to -19C – an amazing drop overnight.

It’s budget day tomorrow so we will have to see what Mr Harper has in store for us. Of course his job and his government are also on the line with the Liberals and NDP baying for his blood and ready to oppose the budget and force either a coalition government or another election. Just what this country needs at this time of economical turmoil.

The hawks are on the prowl

admin — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:39:55 +0000

We have noticed a couple of hawks in the area lately. Although we often see hawks we rarely see them in the garden but just lately we have. I posted a photo of one a week or so ago and the other day we had lots of feathers in the garden where a snowbird had been picked off. This morning I spotted a Sharp-shinned Hawk in the garden and managed to get a few photos of him before we frightened him off.

If our birds and animals are going to get eaten I would prefer that hawks do it, but I would still prefer to deter it if I can. It is the cats that I hate in the garden as they catch things just for fun and not because they need to eat.

Anyway, here is the hawk sitting on the edge of our firepit.

Talking of photos here are a few of a lovely sunrise we had the other morning.

Wildlife is changing

admin — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 14:04:57 +0000

Now we are getting well into autumn and the trees are changing colour, leaves are falling many of the summer birds are leaving. We have gone from lots of robins in the garden to one or two young ones popping by now and again. The grackles are fewer and our lovely little white breasted nuthatch has come back.

We have also seen evidence of the deer in the garden as there are some hoof tracks in the ground, but we haven’t seen them in the flesh yet. Obviously the abundance of food in the adjoining woodland is drying up so they are coming back to the garden to forage – great!

This morning I spotted a hawk in the trees at the edge of the garden. The blue jays didn’t seem the slightest bit bothered but the squirrels and chipmunks were noticeable by their absence.

Here it is in the trees surveying the land. I believe it is a sharp-shinned hawk.

He only stayed a few minutes then went off to probably find better hunting grounds. We love to see them but would prefer it if they didn’t prey on our wildlife!

The raccoons are out most nights although we try not to leave too much food out for them to find. They are looking really fat and fluffy at the moment as they seem to have their winter coats ready for the time they will spend huddled away.

Temperatures are going down and yesterday was only 9C but it felt warmer in the sun. The rest of the week is apparently going to be warmer with temps in the high teens, but I think the temps in the 20′s are a thing of the past (well at least the +20′s are).

The weather man mentioned snow for the first time in Ontario the other day as apparently Sudbury had some fall. Hopefully we are still a couple of months off that, but you never know!