Sharpnado!

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.

October 5, 2015

September 25, 2015

A two-fer over the septic bed.

October 9, 2015

Preening outside the bedroom window.

October 2, 2015

Sharpnado.

Enough said!