Kestrels hunting for food FEb 28, 2010

Carol and I went for a drive today. Neither one of us had any energy so we just drove for 3 hours over the usual haunts. Started within 5 min of my house a nice red tail hawk flew over the car. We were really fortunate to see, at least a dozen red tail hawks, 2 kestrels hunting in the field (Carol was amazed to see them hovering right beside the car), cardinals, 2 snow geese in flight, woodpeckers - one really going at it on a tree and a few more. Highlight was driving down a back road to hear Carol yell stop the car. She was very excited and saw an owl sitting on the building. Make sure you look at Carols amazing owl.
Lighting was really bad today - pure white skies and very cold.

Hunting Kestrels






Hairy Woodpecker

Carols Owl

Red Tail Hawks - saw more than a dozen


Flight of the Snow goose (in the distance)

Male Northern Harrier - Feb 27 2010

I went out to the store today and took a quick drive by the corn fields. I saw this beautiful male northern harrier in the distance. As he came closer I opened the window on my car and took a few shots. Honestly I thought he was coming in the window.

Wood Duck, Gadwell, Wigeons, Kingfisher and more FEb 21, 2010

On Sunday Janice and I went looking for birds. For the first part of the day we saw nothing and figured we would have to post a mallard for the highlight of the day. By noon our luck had changed and at High Park we found a lone wood duck, at Humber Bay a Wigeon, at Sam Smith a gadwell and Leslie Spit at Sunset a Kingfisher. Over all it was a great day, great company and of course seeing the firefighters training was the highlight.

Firefighters -Cold Water Rescue Training Feb 21, 2010

Our Sunday trip took us first to Port Credit where the fire department was doing cold water rescue training. It was amazing to watch them pull each other out of the water. Man you couldn't pay me enough to jump in the water. They had to break the ice just to get in. It was fun to watch. Enjoy.

Northern Harriers up close Feb 19 2010

I stopped by Halls Road after work to see if anything was moving. I was standing by the tree in the parking lot when beside me comes the harrier. He circled and went into the fields to hunt. He came back and forth and I was able to get a couple of nice close shots.

Red Tail hawk on the hunt Feb 15 2010

I went out for a drive on Monday. I am always looking for speeding signs and this time I got lucky - a red tail on the sign and then he dived onto the ground to hunt. He was flapping his wings having a great old time.

Ann

Varied Thrush and more FEb 14 2010

Today Walter Frank and Tracy went to see the varied thrush again and got some wonderful looks at it. Also a brown creeper, goldfinch, cardinals, blue jays, woodpeckers, and a lot of red tails flying over the highway.