Along with many others, we cruised down Hall's road this afternoon
looking for various Owls (I presume others were similarly inclined). In
late afternoon many had good sightings of one or both of the GGOW'ls
who were active in the woods to the West of Hall's Road near the lake.
Most people were sensitive to the need to not impinge too closely on
the birds.
The (presumably) BAOW was seen by many at a variety of sites along
Hall's between the North and the South trails, seemingly willing to put
up with dozens of viewers and scopes along the road. Those who stuck it
out until dusk were pleased to see the GGOW's (2 in number) hunting
along the skyline to the West, in some cases displacing Rough Legged
and Red Tailed Hawks from suitable perches. As dusk fell even further
there were a couple of sightings of (consensus) LEOW's coming from the
East side of the road to hunt over the fields to the West. Those who
stuck it out a little longer and cruised the road slowly were
privileged to see a LEOW perched on one of the fence posts on the East
side of the road, giving the plaintive cry they make as they prepare to
hunt.
While waiting for all of this to happen a while before dusk, there was
a good look at a Sharpie who was perched on the snag along the South
Trail munching on some sort of prey (no feathers seen, perhaps a
vole?). As usual there were a couple of NOHA and RLHA cruising the
territory or perching on good lookouts. There was an interesting
scenario where a RLHA was perched against the skylight near dusk, but
was replaced by another hawk (apparently a RTHA from the rear view),
who was then displaced by one of the GGOW's. Apparently there is a
hierarchy here, even if we birders are not able to influence who gets
priority.
(Although we did not see any GHOW this evening, we did see several
potential meals for same venturing out on the East side treeline, and
even crossing the road to forage on the West side. )
Professor Gene Denzel
Information Technology Program
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
York University 416-736-5250
