Northern Saw-whet Owl, Lark Sparrow

I had the pleasure of doing some field work in Eastern Ontario this past week and stopped at a few places to see what I could find.  The highlights of the day were a Northern Saw-whet Owl, (the) Lark Sparrow and an adult Red-shouldered Hawk near Napanee!

This Northern Saw-whet Owl that I located after some searching definitely stole the show!

Northern Saw-whet Owl

This is our smallest owl in Ontario, standing only about 7 inches tall.  This cute little guy was sleeping, with half a dozen chickadees chirping at him angrily from nearby branches, which definitely helped in locating it.  He only half opened his one eye to have a look at me.  

Can you see the owl in the zoomed out shot below?

Seeing the Lark Sparrow in Toronto was also exciting, and harder to find than expected.  This bird has been around now for quite some time, often offering excellent views.  But on this day, it was hunkered down on the wrong side of the fence in some dense shrubbery.

Not an award winning shot of a Lark Sparrow...

 I was also pleasantly surprised to see a Northern Mockingbird at the Lark Sparrow spot.  It was aggressively chasing off the House Sparrows!