I'm glad I decided on an early afternoon walk in High Park today. As I crossed Bloor West at Keele, a raptor flew across the street in the same direction. It was carrying a Rock Pigeon and landed in a tree, forty feet up, just inside the park. After fumbling madly for my binoculars, I was able to observe it for about ten minutes until it flew off into a dense stand of trees. It was a large Cooper's Hawk. By the way, it had the plumage of an adult bird but it's eyes were distinctly yellow.
A few hundred metres along Spring, I spotted a Redtail in a tree over the creek. It was clutching a squirrel. It was disturbed by dogs a few times and tree-hopped south until I eventually lost it. At one point, as I leaned against the wire fence under a cedar, making notes, a Black-capped Chickadee landed on my notebook and a Red-breasted Nuthatch landed on my sleeve.
On my way home, I saw another Redtail hunting over the Studio building on Rosedale Valley Road. I guess good things come in threes.
