At exactly 12:00 noon, yesterday, I was in my car, waiting to pick up my friend's son from work at one of the box stores in the large, Walmart/Canadian Tire dominated shopping mall a few hundred metres south of the Stouffville Sideroad and just east of and visible from Highway 48, when I heard a Northern Raven. Sure enough I looked out the window of my west-facing parked car and saw a single bird flying west, just over the tops of the southernmost stores (Winner's, Mark's Warehouse, Walmart). There is a flag nearby and it indicated a brisk east wind, and yet even with the tail wind the raven moved very slowly, dipping his tail and dropping down and then swooping up (like a huge, black, goldfinch<G>), as if thinking about landing, or maybe scouting for scraps. But the bird continued moving west, until lost from view. I sent this yesterday to the wrong address.and have since learned about ravens nesting in Uxbridge, so maybe not so unusual after all. Barry Kent MacKay Bird Artist, Illustrator Studio: (905)-472-9731 http://www.barrykentmackay.ca [email protected] _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
