Yes, turkey vultures can be found in S. Ontario in the summer.
Re: the red-tail vs. the peregrine: I was going to say that if it was larger than a seagull it had to be a red tail, but Sibley’s Guide to Birds tells me that herring gulls (your garden variety seagull in many areas) are in fact larger than red-tailed hawks!
I would use a crow as a comparison. Red tailed hawks are larger than crows, whereas Peregrine falcons would be smaller. Red tails are often seen beside highways on light poles, telephone poles or other perches 20-50 ft. above the ground. In Cambridge MA where I work I ofen see them staking out parking lots and empty lots. They are on the lookout for mice, rats, squirrels etc, although I think they take other birds too.
Peregrines I think are more likely to be found higher up on building ledges (or cliffs, traditionally). They tend to prey on birds more than rodents…in cities they eat a lot of pigeons.
Go to Queen Street across the stree from CityTV is a block that runs from John to McCaul. In behind it is a little park. You can see rats there frequently enough. Usually big dead ones. I you go near the loading doors of the AGO, next to OCAD you can find the rats there too. Yu-uuuuuck!
For cool wildlife though, my co-workers and I got to watch a hawk eating a pigeon in the tree just outside out office window (we work by CityTV – right downtown!). Very cool. Disgusting. But very cool. And there was a raccoon waiting on the ground for the hawk to finish so he could eat the leftovers.
They were having a tough time of it for awhile. I used to only see them when I was rock climbing along the Niagara Escarpment. But whoa, nelly! Turkey vultures have made quite the comeback! I see them quite a lot now. Mostly when I’m driving along the 401 expressway (they seem to circle lazily until some poor creature gets struck by a car.)
I even have pictures from when a curious turkey vulture kepp swooping down to take a closer look at my camera as I was shooting an old barn. (Unfortunately I was using a very slow shutter speed so you just see a blurry black swoosh that mostly looks like a daytime ghost.) Big birds up close.
