Rough-legged Hawk at Downsview

[Rotarran]

Saw a Rough-legged Hawk at Downsview today around 3:30pm.  It was soaring looking for food along with the Red Tails of which I saw at least 4...possibly more but I might be double-counting.  I'll post pictures later.  At first I thought it might be the Dark Morph RTH everyone's been talking about, but I'm fairly certain it's a Roughie.  In any case, my pictures are certainly good enough for ID purposes and I'll post them as soon as I get home.

It was nice to see that someone's been putting feeders in the woods and it has attracted lots of Tree Sparrows and Juncos as well as Mourning Doves.  And one Downy Woodpecker.

Edit: no Snowy today, no Kestrels, no Shrikes or anything else of note.

[Rotarran]

Here's a picture of the Rough-legged Hawk...quite definitive I would say.  



I also got a picture of the Western dark-morph Red-tailed Hawk as well but only distantly and backlit unfortunately.  


And I got some nice shots of a Red-tailed Hawk that was about 10 meters away.  


Nice day for Hawk-watching

[Napper]

awsome!! shots, I'll have keep an eye out for that Rough Leg.

I am not surprised about the lack of anything yesterday, that North wind was brutal most of the day.

Napper

[dizzy]

You got some nice birds. I would love to see that Roughie. Congrats!

[Dinusaur]

Nice set - I was there a week-ago. I saw three or four RTHs but no kestrel, snowy or rough-legged one. Wonder if the rough legged hawk was hunting in the vicinity or just flying by?

[Rotarran]

The Roughie looked like it was just one of the hawks...soaring alongside the RTH's.  And the RTH's didn't mind it for the most part.  So there's a chance it might still be there.  One thing I did notice with the Roughie is that its flyilng/soaring style was somewhat different from the RTH's...and you can kinda tell from the picture I posted.  The Roughie's wings seem to be a bit slimmer and longer and bent at the elbow, whereas the Red-tails have their shorter but broader wings fully stretched out.  The Roughie reminded of an Osprey almost.   But maybe it was just a windy day (as Napper mentioned) so that might have affected its flying style.

[Pat Hodgson]

No, you are right, their flight style is always different from red-tailed.

[Flyingbass]

I just saw the rough legged hawk, thanks for the tip about the flight pattern.  It was great, I had my scope on a snowy owl in one of the fields and I actually moved my scope off of a Snowy owl to get a closer look at a rough-legged haw.  Very fun!

[Rotarran]

Very nice.  Glad you got to see the Roughie.  Where'd you see the Snowy?  I haven't seen one this year yet at Downsview (or anywhere for that matter).

[Dinusaur]

I went to Downsview today and saw the one below. Is it a rough legged hawk? It is as skittish as some of the RTHs in the park are. This one was sitting on a tree on the eastern side of the park and few off as it saw me coming 300 meters away. White spots in the first picture are snow flakes and not part of the bird. I also saw a snowy there today, on the fence by the railway track.

[thouc]

Yes, it's the Rough-legged Hawk.

[mr.sharp-photo]

pretty sure i've seen the RTH while driving on the Allen/Dufferin. it was sitting in a tree off the Allen on Thursday at noon and yesterday at 2ish.