Merlin

Loyal Toronto Wildlife fans may remember this guy.

At the time, I identified this bird as a Sharp-Shinned Hawk, however it turns out...I'm wrong. Shocking I know. Even more shocking, it's not the first time I've made a raptor ID error. They can be very hard to tell apart.

This is, in fact, a Merlin. This is good news for two reasons, because a) Merlins are rarer than Sharp-Shins, and b) they're falcons, a Toronto Wildlife first.

Huge hat tip and thanks to reader Sean Hollis for pointing this out. And perhaps I don't say it enough, but I'm always happy to hear from anyone who feels I've misidentified something.

Hawkeye

As we've briefly touched on before, identifying hawks in this part of the world can be tricky. This is especially true when trying to distinguish a Cooper's Hawk from a Sharp-shinned Hawk. In this case, the highly-credentialed Toronto Wildlife bird identification brain trust believes this to be a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Click to get a better look for yourself. A Red-tailed Hawk would only have the dark bars farther down on its belly.

There was also a debate as to whether this shot should be published at all since it was taken at the Kortright Conservation Centre in Woodbridge. But, really, if we've already decided that Whitby is in Toronto, then Woodbridge qualifies. If you've never been there, the Kortright is a great place to visit, though you should be prepared for lots of walking and you do have to pay for parking.

Highrise Hawk

As many of you already know, our huge staff here at Toronto Wildlife laughs at danger, and we spare absolutely no expense of time or effort to obtain the very best urban wildlife images. To that end, last night, right after dinner, I walked out onto my own balcony. And from just a few feet away this hawk was staring back at me.

Thinking of you dear reader I went all the way back inside and got my camera. When I came back out the hawk hadn't budged and was still staring at me. He seems a little freaked out, likely because he's not used to seeing relatively large (but still fashionably slim) mammals just a few yards away when he's 130 feet high.

And from up high he checked out the area. First he looked down.

Then he looked to his right.

Then he looked over his shoulder.

Then he looked to his left.

Then he kind of...well, I'm not sure what direction this is, but he saw something interesting.

Then he (or she) took off with one more concerned look in my direction. As you can see from the darker lighting, this was almost exactly at the moment the sun went down which might not be a coincidence.

This hawk was fast. And here's a tip, sometimes you can be too close to what you're photographing, because at the speed this hawk flew off there was no way to physically pan quickly enough to get even one real flight shot. I got this one and then just empty sky.

After a good deal of hemming and hawing I've decided that this is probably a Sharp-shinned hawk, however you should definitely read about the Broad-winged hawk before you take my word for it.

UPDATE: July, 2012. The last paragraph above seems awfully prophetic now. This is actually a Merlin. Oops.