Avian Combat: Horace Strikes Swiftly
 

I've been taking photos and videos of this hawk (affectionately named Horace) that moved into the neighbourhood about five years back, and while some cool stuff has happened since then, the encounters of the past few weeks have grown in intensity, with this afternoon topping them off so far.

Two months ago, to celebrate the summer of love, our guy's lady showed up, and some time later, there were a few little guys flying around. It was pretty cool watching the parents teaching their young how to soar and hunt. After the kids were taught, everyone except our guy dispersed to find new hunting grounds.

It was during this recent teaching process that these hawks started coming closer and closer to my apartment building--which is practically an aviary for pigeons.

A few things that I've noticed over the past few weeks:

1) Because I get the afternoon sun, the hawks seem to have chosen that as their ideal time to hunt within my view, and they appear to be very clever about being up-sun;

2) Because my building is 'Y' shaped, it really looked to me today that they were 'corralling' the pigeons into the crook of the 'Y' (if you want to Google up a reference map: "43 Thorncliffe, Toronto", north leg facing west);

3) I've discovered a new appreciation for pigeons.

So, today the family was all together once again. Every now and then in the past, there would be Horace and his lady (Isabel), but today there were five or six hawks flying around. The sky was filled with their calls, and the pigeons were going nuts trying to find places to hide.

I split my time shooting stills and videos depending on what was happening, and the strip of stills below are my little highlight reel. At this point in the day, there was only one hawk in the sky, so with the skies free of anything but game, Horace made his big move.

The first five shots are the dive-in (actually, I think he started putting on the brakes in the fifth); and the last five are the pull-out, which wound up being a lot closer to my balcony than you can tell from the shots. These ten shots represent about four seconds real-time.

But enough talkie:

http://a.imageshack.us/img838/9323/strikerhalved.th.jpg

http://a.imageshack.us/img838/9323/strikerhalved.jpg

P.s.: I'm assuming that these are hawks, but I'm no expert, and I'm just loving that they're around at all.

And p.p.s.: Sorry for the quality of the pics, but my camera's meant more for family vacation than anything else. I was going to upload some video, but the dimensions are 320 x 240, so meh.

This might help you ID the species

http://www.hmana.org/documents/NEHW_Hawk_Guide_08.pdf

Definitely look like hawks...lovely set of shots there. I recall many years ago watching from a bus, a Merlin or Hobby chasing a blackbird, I only caught a few seconds of it because I was traveling at forty-fifty mph, but man, those birds could move! The Blackbird was throwing itself around like crazy but that falcon was glued on its tail...I've never forgotten it...absolutely amazing. :yep:

That guide helps to narrow things down a lot! A good refresher for me--it's just been ages since I've spent time studying wildlife, and since moving to the city, there hasn't been much to see. Gonna spend some time figuring it out, but I think that a red-tail might make a good candidate... or a rough-legged or a Swainson's.

I'm fortunate that--other than whatever supernatural contortion my body takes on at times--I'm in a stationary spot here at about the height of the treetops; and when they're hunting where I can see them, they're generally in view for extended periods.

I've really been enjoying watching them even when they're just soaring, watching how they catch the wind, corkscrew around, dive straight down suddenly, or when they're in pairs and flying formation; and how their wings angle differently, tuck in slightly, or how their feathers sprawl out.

I'm into it!

Hawks of some sort you can tell by the squared off tails.

Not enough resolution to tell what kind though.