{"id":852,"date":"2013-02-11T20:12:40","date_gmt":"2013-02-12T01:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/?p=852"},"modified":"2025-05-17T19:29:46","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T23:29:46","slug":"tiny-hawk-falcon-sitting-tree-lakeside-park-mississauga-ontario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/tiny-hawk-falcon-sitting-tree-lakeside-park-mississauga-ontario\/","title":{"rendered":"What Kind of Tiny Hawk or Falcon is Perching in a Tree in Lakeside Park Mississauga Ontario?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, I went for a brisk walk on a freezing but clear winter day along Lake Ontario at Lakeside Park in Mississauga. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of some more interesting ducks like the Goldeneye, Scaup and Buffleheads I had seen her earlier in the winter. I walked towards shore then towards the east to get a closer look at a pair of circling Red Tailed hawks. As I passed the end of the Off Leash Dog Exercise area, I noticed a bird sitting on top of a young-ish tree in a slightly more naturalized area. But what kind of bird was it?<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

As you can see from this first photo, it was just slightly larger than a robin. Given the cold temperatures it could even be a very puffed up robin. But the colours didn\u2019t look right, and I couldn\u2019t understand why a robin would perch in such an exposed spot. Operating under the hope that it might be something better, I started shooting photos.<\/p>\n

As I got closer I realized with pleasure that this was actually a raptor. The sun was still glaring in my eyes, so I couldn\u2019t see the birds colouring clearly. Unfortunately, I forgot even my basic birding skills and crashed too close (25 feet) to its tree. The bird flew. And then I immediately knew.<\/p>\n

The shape of the wings and the type of flight meant it was a kestrel.<\/p>\n

Kestrels Are the Smallest Falcon in Ontario<\/h2>\n

A kestrel is the smallest falcon in Ontario. However, these tiny fighters used to be called Sparrow Hawks, so I know some people think of them as hawks.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

The sharply pointed wings and sleek streamlined shape were obvious as it glided in to land half way up a mighty poplar near a field. Rather than risk it wasting more energy on me on such a cold afternoon, I retraced my steps to the shore and took photos of icicles from the surf.<\/p>\n

Once home, I looked at my photos and was pleased to confirm it was a female kestrel. The males have slate coloured wings; the females\u2019 wings are brown.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Since most of the ducks I saw were mallards or very distant Buffleheads, Scaup and Goldeneyes, it was great to see something unexpected. I hope her hunting was also successful!<\/p>\n

Join In<\/strong>
\nHave you seen a kestrel sitting on a telephone wire or hovering over a farmer\u2019s field? Please share your experiences with a comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This tiny falcon was once called a sparrow hawk even though it eats more grasshoppers than sparrows. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[873,25,78,41,60],"class_list":["post-852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focus","tag-american-kestrel","tag-birds","tag-falcons","tag-hawks","tag-lakeside-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852","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=852"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9659,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852\/revisions\/9659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}