![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/IceMarshonNaturalCrooksDotCom.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Mallards have paired up already. This male kept a close eye on me and led his partner briskly downstream away from intrusive cameras.<\/p>\n
This pair of deer strolled blithely across the Bexhill road entrance path only a few metres ahead of me. Once through, they\u00a0 browsed on the shrubs for a few minutes. Then they stopped near the back yard fences. They were alert for several minutes, listening and watching without moving. I did not see any dog walkers passing by nor was their attention down on the board walk. Instead, they seemed alert to something in one of the back yards.<\/p>\n Curious to see if something would happen, I lingered on the board walk watching them. A passerby told me that she had seen a limping deer in one of the back yards further along. It’s possible these two deer were waiting for it.<\/p>\n I never did see what they were interested in: Eventually one started chewing its cud and the other relaxed too. The nice thing was several people stopped to ask me what I was looking at and I showed them the deer. Even large animals can be surprisingly well camouflaged and most people had been walking right past the does, even though they were quite close.<\/p>\n Earlier this winter I had watched a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk on the ground eating. Its tail had a few dark and lighter bars<\/strong><\/a>. According to my bird id theories, that meant it was not a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk which should have many dark and light tail bars.<\/p>\n Today, I got a tail view of a Red-tailed hawk, perched on a tree along Sheridan Creek. When it turned its head I saw the yellow eye of a juvenile. And as you can see, it does\u00a0 have a lot of tail bars. It’s not the clear closeup photo I am hoping to get but it’s a start!<\/p>\n There is almost always a large flock of House Sparrows at one spot along the path. I watched them for a while without spotting any other types of sparrows.<\/p>\n Further on up the trail, a pair of sparrows flew across the board walk and dove into the Dogwoods and Buckthorn. I tried to get a line of sight to them. Eventually I got one photo but it is missing the face. The red line coming back from the eye through the grey cheek looked familiar but I couldn’t remember why.<\/p>\n I tried posting the photo up to iNaturalist<\/strong><\/a>. It immediately suggested an American Tree Sparrow: and I agree. I have seen them down here several times this winter. The bits and pieces of colouring all match well.<\/p>\n Unlike the sparrow, this American Goldfinch was easy to recognize even from an odd angle well below the Birch branch it was perched on.<\/p>\n A pair of Black-capped Chickadees joined me on the board walk briefly.<\/p>\n At one point in my ramble, a helicopter flew past at a very low altitude. It eventually moved off but then re-traced its route a few minutes later. I watched in a bit of surprise hoping it wasn’t having difficulties. Unlike the Coast Guard and Orange Ambulance helicopters it was small and non-descript. It was the first time I had seen it over Mississauga.<\/p>\n I managed to get a bit of a look at the number. Then when I was at home I tried to look up who owns it. If I looked it up correctly, it is owned by Enbridge<\/strong><\/a>. Maybe they were checking on the pipeline that runs through the Rattray.<\/p>\n Even without the leaves, rushes, reeds and vines blocking my view, I did not discover too many new creatures on my walk. The ones I did see, though, made my wintery afternoon happier so I hope I see some of them again on my next walk.<\/p>\n Related Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n Join In<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do young Red-tailed Hawks have striped tails? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[398,216,77,40,833,218,67],"class_list":["post-7999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rambles","tag-american-goldfinch","tag-american-tree-sparrow","tag-mississauga","tag-rattray-marsh","tag-red-squirrel","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-white-tailed-deer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7999"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8009,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7999\/revisions\/8009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
\nCan you see her? She’s there too, or at least part of her is visible.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat Do the Does See?<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nDo Juvenile Red-tailed Hawks Have Many Tail Stripes?<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nWhat’s That Little Brown Job Darting Through the Shrubs?<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nBuzzed By a Helicopter at the Rattray Marsh in Mississauga<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nThis Red Squirrel shows his opinion of me: he chattered at me then darted away up a tree.<\/p>\n\n
\nDo you have a favourite park to visit for a short stroll in winter? Please share your views with a comment.<\/p>\n