Red Tailed Hawk

by Judy
(Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

September 6/2014

I live in Little Italy in downtown Toronto. Before preparing my coffee, I slid open my balcony door and I could hear unusual one-note bird noises.

I generally know what birds I get in my backyard and this sounded different.

As I made my coffee, I glanced over at the door and saw one of my cats staring upward into the beech tree.

My balcony is practically inside this tree, so I looked up into the tree and was astounded to see what I believe to be a juvenile Red Tailed Hawk.

The squirrels were chasing each other in competition for the peanuts I had just put out for them on the balcony and I think this attracted the young hawk.

The hawk stayed on the same branch for about 5 minutes eyeing the squirrels, then flew to another branch, and I guess changed his mind about the squirrel meal and flew away.

I couldn't believe a Red Tailed Hawk would venture so close to my townhouse.

I did a little research online. The hawk was too big to be a Sharp-shinned hawk and the tail wasn't long enough to be a Cooper's hawk, so I can only conclude that it was indeed a Red Tailed hawk.

What a thrill!