Do you live near a municipal well? Funding for source water protection projects is now available: Septic system inspections and upgrades Well decommissioning and upgrading Surface runoff and erosion control Pollution prevention reviews for businesses Visit www.peelregion.ca/sourceprotection to find out if you qualify for funding to improve your property and to help us protect the source of our drinking water. The Region of Peel, in partnership with the provincial government and local conservation authorities, is dedicated to protecting the future of our drinking water supplies.
Juvenile peregrine falcons Adult Cooper’s hawk
to boil. Think of the call of a cedar waxwing amplified. However, if the call of the broadwinged hawks is not impressive, their habit of travelling in flocks of hundreds, even thousands, during their fall migration certainly is. These aggregations of hawks, called “kettles,” swirl high overhead on thermals, leisurely moving towards the south. Birders very much anticipate the spectacle of these mass migrations. In years past, the hawk shooters did as well. Like buffalo hunters they gloried in an orgy of easy slaughter. Arthur Cleveland Bent related mass killings of broad-winged hawks that occurred in two Minnesota towns in 1925. An estimated 4,000 were killed by the townspeople in a single day. Though spectacular in migration, broad-winged hawks can be difficult to see during the breeding season, when they usually conduct their affairs among the shelter of trees. However, at times they do soar like red-tailed hawks. On sunny days I’ve watched broad-winged hawks circle high above the trees at Forks of the Credit Provincial Park Harriers, formerly known as marsh hawks, are drawn to the extensive old fields in our area, especially those that have wetlands nearby. Richard Procter recounts watching a harrier hunting over the fields of his farm near
Mansfield. “It glides low on breezy days,” he says, “just skimming a few feet above the tops of the tall grass, occasionally wheeling about to pounce on something. Quite impressive as it cruises along like a dragonfly.” I like Richard’s description. There is nothing direct about harrier flight, nor do they soar in neat circles. Rather they “bob” about in the wind and are prone to sudden changes in direction – like a dragonfly. My most memorable experience with a harrier was at Cataract during the first breeding bird atlas project. Harriers are ground nesters and as I hiked through a meadow I must have come uncomfortably close to a nest. A male harrier (the males sport a slategrey topside to the females’ brown) launched itself towards me uttering a scolding kekekeke! As he hovered overhead I could see that he held something in his talons. Then, like a bombardier, he released his payload. A plump meadow vole fell to the ground at my feet. The only hawk species in Ontario known to have experienced a significant decrease in recent years is the American kestrel. However, these robin-sized falcons are still common in t he Headwaters region and throughout southern Ontario. As an open-country species, their decline continued on next page
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www.duca.com IN THE HILLS SUMMER 2009
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