new hobby?

Why not start a new hobby? Hawk watching. Our local hawks are back - Red-tails, Coopers, Sharp-shinned, Kestrel and even some rarer species. Where to go? The rural areas of Niagara - the side roads and specific places you know. If you “hawk” from the confines of your car, be careful. It’s best if one drives and in the passenger seat the other uses the bird glasses. Watch for cars behind and if possible pull over on the shoulder. Don’t block traffic.
When I started “hawk” watching after my retirement I found a few places I liked to sight these fascinating raptors. South Koabel Road off Netherby Road is great for watching from your car. This is Red-tail country although we see the beautiful little Sparrow hawks (Kestrel) there quite often.
One place I return again and again to is the Stevensville Conservation Area. This is where I saw “mobbing” of a Great Horned owl by a murder of crows. Murder? Yes. For over an hour I watched the systematic bedeviling of that great raptor. It eventually flew eastwards pursued by the crows. This article is dedicated to the late naturalist writer, Ed Teale. In an insert in his log he tells us about the great flying hawk, the Sharp-shinned and his mobbing foes, the Blue Jays. If you know about this acrobatic raptor here is a portion of Teale’s account.
“A sharp-shinned hawk had been haunting the yard this morning trying to catch a chickadee. I saw this predator streaking in, speeding low across the yard toward the terrace apple tree.”
Writer’s Note: The sharp-shinned hawk is a raptor. It hunts other birds. It’s a great flyer. It is not a large hawk. Our most common hawk locally is the red-tailed hawk. It is a much larger hawk and can not maneuver like a sharp-shinned. A red-tail’s diet consists mainly of the meadow vole not other birds.
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Take Mitchener Road west out of Ridgeway and just past the ‘s’ curve this side of Longmeadow Farm is a Red-tailed hawk’s nest on your left. Here it is the end of May and we see the mother’s head in the nest. Any young ones? We pull off the road and we view with the binoculars. I’ll return and set up my bird scope. Road birding is fun just be careful, eh.