Many in southern Ontario will remember early autumn 2015 for the unusual weather pattern that saw consecutive days of strong and sustained NE winds. Birders were rewarded with seldom seen numbers of
Sabine’s Gull,
White-rumped Sandpiper,
Hudsonian Godwit and
Eurasian Dotterel.
At the north end of the Bruce Peninsula we experienced a very different and highly localized phenomenon. But first a little background…of course we're accustomed to
Sharp-shinned Hawks migrating over our yard along the Lake Huron shoreline. Similarly, our feathers aren’t ruffled by the irregular depredations by
Merlin and various accipiters at our feeders. This was different. Our patch became occupied by an increasing number of
Sharp-shinned Hawks. I say “occupied” in the sense that the sharpies just seemed to be hanging out here. They’d loaf on our dock, preen outside the bedroom window and congregate next to the septic bed. They weren’t at all skittish. Weird.
The interplay between the forces of nature - atmospheric and biological - sometimes has
awesome and terrifying consequences. Here I provide photographic documentation of a very rare
Category 5 Sharpnado. All photos were taken through our windows.
Hanging out on the dock.
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| October 5, 2015 |
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| September 25, 2015 |
A two-fer over the septic bed.
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| October 9, 2015 |
Preening outside the bedroom window.
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| October 2, 2015 |
Sharpnado.
Enough said!
