Owl Encounter in Noojimo'iwewin Gitigaan

Beginning with a Body: Found just inside Noojimo’iwewin Gitigaan’s entranceway garden, the pigeon had just begun to be plucked. Two parallel wounds on either side of the breastbone suggested powerful talons. On the back, identical wounds on either side of the spine. The strike had been from above and behind. The pigeon didn’t have a chance.

I hadn’t found a body in the garden for some time, though I knew red-tail hawks hunted here. Our neighbour on Rushton Rd. had told us they’d gone from supping on the corner to the quieter confines of the fenced backyard next-door. But the strike on this pigeon had been made by a raptor with much larger talons. An owl, I thought. I’d never seen an owl in the wild, let alone on a city street.

The light was becoming stronger, and passersby along the sidewalk more frequent. The streetcars trundled by; the occasional siren sounded —accompanied as always by Loki’s wolf-like howls from the apartment balcony above. Any one of these might have caused an owl to drop prey.

I bagged the body, then went on to help Garden Educator Maya Klinowski set up to harvest potatoes with the children. My role was to take photos, and tidy up between classes.

Harvesting their containers of potatoes is a joyous occasion for the littles, and a noisy one. I stood out of their way, facing down Rushton. Suddenly massive copper and buff wings unfurled from a tree a few houses away. The bird took off quickly. A square tail. No head visible.

I was awestruck.

Gliding to the top of the tallest tree on the block, wings and tail folded into foliage once more and the bird disappeared.

A week of research confirmed I had indeed seen an owl, likely a Great Horned Owl. Only the handful of Bald Eagles now living in Toronto have a wider wingspan. Yet, unlike the eagles, Great Horned Owls are regular nesters here.

We urban humans—with our propensity to build, build, build—have disrupted the habitat of so many of our non-human relatives. Yet raptors, long in decline in Toronto, have been making a comeback in the last 40 years, one of the most hopeful signs of increasing biodiversity in the city landscape. Unless you’re a pigeon.

The descendants of feral rock pigeons escaped from domestication by early European settlers subsidize raptor food supply, as do Norway rats, once stowaways on ships, and the most numerous mammals in the world. Red-tailed hawks, peregrine falcons, merlins, Eastern screech owls, and great horned owls, among other raptors, have now adapted not only to tree canopies in parks and ravines, but to tall buildings as cliff tops. One cheeky red-tail hawk family even established itself on the legislative building in Queen’s Park.

Red-tail Hawk Clan member and fierce advocate for Indigenous rights that she is, Elder Catherine approves.