Somewhere, as you enter it, there are signs that proudly declare the population to be over 3 million people. That's Toronto. Then there's the GTA, the Greater Toronto Area .. greater than what I am not certain .. and the population number seems to swell. Four million, six million .. just a fuck of a lot of people.
When we think of big cities we usually think of tall towers of steel and glass, ribbons of concrete highways, streetlights blinking over lifeless streets.
But of course that is not true. Nature ain't no pussy, she don't go down so easy. Given even the meanest opportunity, Nature and Life is gonna bust on out. Why I'm suddenly writing like a broken down lame ass white rapper, I have no idea ..
But case in point: This past Sunday I went out on my front porch to get the newspaper, raised my head and was met by the unflinching gaze of a red tail hawk.
He was right on my front lawn, just a couple of feet away from the road, in the middle of Toronto, just blocks away from some of the busiest highways in Ontario if not all of Canada. He did not seem to mind. He had found himself something worth all the distractions, a roadkill squirrel, what the hawk would call "free buffet"
When we were in New York City last March, we had witnessed another redtail hawk feasting on some urban squirrel. But that had been in Central Park, essentially an urban forest and not totally surprising. And although Toronto has its share of green belts, and my own neighbourhood has many parks, I just don't think of it as being an urban forest
But there is indeed a great deal of wildlife around here; I see wild rabbits all the time. Terra sees them too, but only when they're moving. If a rabbit freezes, my border collie walks right on by them. I've seen foxes as well, walking right down the middle of the street, and Toronto has a very active, robust populations of coyotes, a family of which located in a ravine park just minutes away from here
At any rate I took advantage of this opportunity to see something as beautiful as this hawk. Collette quickly joined me, quickly firing away with her 400 mm lens .. yup I have lens envy
I put together a little video including stills and some video I shot with the D7000. This was an inpromptu shoot, so I didn't have time to dig out a monopod or my shooting brace and my hand held skills with the Nikon still have a way to go ..
So shut up. Enjoy the video.
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