Red Tailed Hawk DownsView Park

[JimL]

Thanks for Rotarren's help, I finally got some red tailed hawks at DownsView Park. I was not aware of how smart those species are, I saw one of them standing on a tree, and it was there when some people pass by, but when I was trying to get close, it flied away when i was about 500 feet away :-), maybe to him, I am a stranger. But it is a good day for me, I saw at least 4 of them.

Some pictures 400 feet away.

 

[Rotarran]

Nice pics.  Yeah they don't let you get too close, same with the Kestrels.  

Here are a few I shot on Saturday

Looking straight at me.  Wouldn't be surprised if he could see what eye-colour I have.




And a Kestrel pic from miles away:

[cosmo3667]

still a great series of pictures

[Fire0725]

That hawk sure is giving you a bird's version of the hairy eyeball!! LOL - love his facial expression with the eyeball glaring at you!

[IronMike]

I was at Downsview park on Sunday as well and saw at least 3 Red-tailed Hawks, along with a few Mourning Doves, Killdeer and plenty of Canada Geese

The behaviour of the hawks was mixed, some flew away while I was quite far away, while one was quite tolerant to my presence and let me get fairly close.





The hawk defintely knew I was there



But continued to clean and preen himself for about 10min





Before taking off...







At one point there were three soaring in the air above me at the same time, they seemed to be hunting a few small songbirds (unidentified) that were flying about

I also got some shots of the doves in the woods



and the 2 killdeer that were flying between the big pond and "the meadow" area up above



I was there in the morning/early-afternoon when I saw all these guys. There were some people flying remote controlled airplanes on the far side of the pond (over the rough dirt area) so I don't know if that scared off any of the birds in the area

Cheers,

Mike  

[Irene]

Beautiful captures. Love the hawk.

[JimL]

Nice shoot, ang congrats, i visit that park again this morning, the hawks went away as soon as they saw me, maybe my camo jacket scared them.

[Rotarran]

Yeah those RC planes kinda ticked me off when I was there but I understand they have few places to go to.

[Flyingbass]

I think I heard horned larks again in the park today!

[cosmo3667]

all the pics are superb but the RTH are fantastic great job

[JimL]

One more from today.

[IronMike]

That a really nice shot JimL. The angle and details are great. Did you have any better luck getting one to sit still?

[JimL]

This one maybe is the one that you mentioned, is more tolerant to people :-)