Birds of Prey

About a week and a half ago we drove with Ian's parents to Beamer, a nearby conservation area, to see the birds of prey returning North for the summer. It was just over a half hour drive away. The weather was cool and there was a bit of snow on the ground under the trees and in the shady areas, but the sun was shining. The hiking trails were a bit muddy in places. But the views were amazing. We were up on top of the Niagara Escarpment, with a view above Grimsby and over Lake Ontario.

It was a nice afternoon for a walk, and it allowed for some nice quality time with Ian's parents. However, the only birds of prey we saw were Turky Vultures, and I don't think we got any really good pictures of them. They mostly just hover in the updrafts at the edge of the escarpment, so the pictures we took were just dark silhouettes, wings outstretched against the sky. Neat, but not really very detailed or anything.

Then, a few days later, I was sitting in our living room and noticed the birds in the front yard were particularly active. So I was standing in the window watching them, when this bird swooped down from the trees in the school yard, behind the houses across the street. Luckily he stuck around long enough for me to swap the zoom lens onto the camera, AND take a picture! Lucky!

That's the Oak tree in our front yard, and I took the picture through the living room window. And to think we drove all the way to Beamer to see this kind of beauty... There's no place like home!