For the last week a raptor has been hanging around my backyard. I am not a bird person which means I can not even really describe the features enough to have some else identify a bird. The best I could get to was that I thought it might be a Kestrel.
I tried a couple of times to take some pictures when it was perched on my fence but It flew off each time. Yesterday I managed a short video on my phone. I asked a couple to look at the video and tell me what they thought it was. Dick Cannings gave me the answer - a sharp-shinned Hawk or Accipiter striatus striatus
This hawk is the smallest of the family and a one that is not endangered. They are a migratory bird in most of Canada but can be resident in these parts. It will be interesting to see if this one decides to make its home here. It seems to be living in the large garry oak on the northwest corner of the property.
I like it when the natural world manages to find a way to exist within the human city. One of the things I liked the most about living in Lillooet is that the natural world was still significantly dominant in the world around us. Bears in my yard were common. The weather would often defined our lives. Forest fires could still threaten the town. In Victoria I have to take what nature I can get in the inner city.
One of the things I like about volunteering at the Dragon Boat Festival each August is that our recycling station over looks the fish cleaning station behind the Flying Otter Grill and several times a day you get to watch seals go after the fish guts being thrown away.
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