Photos: Another Hawk

A while ago I posted photos of a hawk that lives on our block. We've seen him several times since then, sometimes quite close (he flew past our faces as we left for work one day, about 20m away). But I didn't mention at the time (because I didn't know) that there's a hawk living where I work, as well.

I work in a building on John Street with a view over Grange Park and OCAD. We discovered recently that a hawk has taken up residence in the park, scaring the pigeons and perching on a green drainspout on the side of the old St. George Church tower.

It's easy to tell when the hawk's out -- all the park pigeons start flapping around in a panicked group, circling and circling from building to building. The hawk usually parks himself on his favourite downspout, but can occasionally be seen soaring back and forth. One time we spotted him taking off from his tower and turning back, aimed straight for the wall. He seemed to crash into it and fall, but a moment later he righted himself and sailed off to a tree with something in his claws -- a squirrel, as near as we could tell.

Last Friday I spotted the usual pigeon panic, but this time I had my camera with me, and shot off dozens of photos of him on his perch -- he wouldn't oblige me by flying around, though. Unfortunately, the windows in the office are covered in a thin film to keep out excessive sunlight, which ruined the sharpness of the photos. I had to go outside to ground level to get these photos. He stuck around for quite a while, mostly ignoring me, though a couple of times he looked me over.