Today was much slower then expected. A number of Broadwinged Hawks moved through eastern raptor watches at Cranberry Marsh and Iriquois Shoreline,which indicates they were further north then we can view from our spot at Rosetta McClain Gardens. The local Coopers Hawk was chased by Crows. The best sighting of the day was a Common Raven,which is an uncommon sighting in Toronto. We saw it coming towards the park,and I thought it was a hawk,from the way it was flying,and its shape. As it approached I was trying to see some other colour then black and make it into some odd morph of hawk. Soon the Crows began chasing it and the size difference,wedge tail and different cadence and I called it a Raven. Aside from its relative rarity in the city,what made this a fun sighting was that Walter and I had just spoken 30minutes earlier about him not seeing one in the GTA as yet(he has seen many elsewhere). It is the 2nd time during the Rosetta McClain Gardens Raptor Watch that a Common Raven was seen,the first was several years ago.
Our raptor sightings were:
7-Turkey Vultures
1-Northern Harrier
16-Sharpshinned Hawks
1-Coopers Hawk(plus the local)
2-Redtailed Hawks
8-American Kestrels
1-Merlin
36-Total Raptors
The next few days will be hit and miss for numbers. The next predictably good day is Saturdays north wind. One never knows when the birds will show up,Ive had hundreds of Sharpshinned Hawks fly on Southwest or east winds,so who knows..apparently the birds dont read the weather forecasts.
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