About a week earlier the owl was first reported in the Hamilton area. My father-in-law, Ron, was quite excited by the news and we decided to try and see it. I think I am correct in stating that Ron hadn't seen the Hawk Owl before - I remember that on a previous trip on the Polar Bear Express he was scouring the tops of evergreen trees for them.
We didn't get the owl on our first attempt at Port Weller, St. Catharine's. It was quite a cold day and we were surprised to see a sizable flock of Robins in the trees. I didn't really know what to look for, so I kept an eye on the tops of evergreen trees. After about an hour we decided to call it a day in part due to the cold and lack of success and in part because I had to get home for when Finn woke up from his (supervised) nap.
During the week that followed it was reported that the Hawk Owl was not again observed in Port Weller, but regular sightings were now being reported in Stoney Creek. The following weekend I set out again to observe this owl, but Ron wasn't available (and saw it the day before from afar) so I was travelling solo. When I arrived at the reported site another birder was just arriving as well. We walked the wrong direction at first, but as we were heading back to our cars another birder told us exactly where the owl was.
About 150 m along a railroad track it became evident where the owl was currently. Three men with expensive photography equipment were lined up beside the track with their cameras aimed atop their tripods at the woods. The birder I first ran into had only a pair of binoculars, and I had a relatively small lens and no tripod.
The owl was quite close at hand and seemed not to be bothered by the people watching him. He was quite a handsome owl - compact without being fat, very stripy, and fairly intelligent looking. I took a few pictures the moment he came into view in case he flew off, but he was quite unconcerned with us.
As we watched he flew from his perch on top of a tree and dove into a ditch, and when he emerged he was carrying a vole or a mouse. He took this to the top of a dead tree and started going about the business of being an owl eating a small rodent. At one point he flew over to a low branch of a large tree right across from me - still with his meal.
Once he had finished up his meal I took a few more photos and prepared to leave. It was more or less at this point that I found out that one of the photographers had already been there for about five hours following the owl. I had been there all of about 20 minutes with my lesser equipment and found I was more than satisfied with the results. There were reports later in the winter of photographers baiting the owl with frozen mice to get better pictures. I thought it had been cooperative enough just letter us watch it for a few minutes.
This owl was my second success following a mailing list to a rare bird. Less than a month earlier I saw a Brent Goose or Brant at Burloak Park. I remember I drove home from work and Ron told me a Brant was in the area. We immediately set off with Finn back to Burloak Park, which I had passed on the way home. It was just starting to get dark when we got there and there wasn't a bird in sight. Then an immature Brant stuck his head up from behind some rocks, walked around a large rock, and disappeared again. I got some disappointing photos, and have not seen a Brant since.
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