Bald Eagle

Last year, a pair of nesting bald eagles showed up on the north shore of Cootes Paradise. This was the first time in more than forty years that any bald eagles had been seen anywhere along the north shore of Lake Ontario. Their numbers had been severely affected by DDT poisoning and are only now starting to return.

Now there are other raptors in this area. They can be seen soaring on the currents created by the Niagara Escarpment. The geological formation that I’m atop of, the ancient and giant glacial sandbar known as the Iroquois Bar (or Iroquia Ridge as some refer to it) also attracts a large number of raptors because of the updrafts it creates. The not so attractive but very graceful in flight turkey vultures seem to be most prevalent. I once counted 13 of them perched on a power line tower. Plenty of hawks can be seen, owls, while hard to see are here, and falcons are also present.

Saturday was a gorgeous day, I had a means of making the day even more interesting, so I decided to go for a hike. I ended up in one of my favourite spots (should I say where? Hmmmhh....). Beautiful spot, fairly secluded, with lots of birds around. Swans, geese, mergansers, ducks, gulls, the aforementioned hawks and vultures, and many more smaller species.

The bright sunny day became overcast later in the afternoon. It also became quite a bit windier. I was thoroughly enjoying myself though, I had my jacket with me to warm up, and my brew kit for a cup of tea, so I sat there for quite a while longer.

I picked up my camera to snap some photos of the cliff in front of me. I had already shot some earlier, but kind of half heartedly thought I’d take some with the sun behind the clouds. Kind of knew they wouldn’t be so great, but what the heck. As I snapped about the third picture, I saw a dark bird swooping down. I’d been seeing geese and mergansers (both dark birds) flying around for a few hours, and vultures had also been swirling around on the currents. But I quickly realized this was way better.

It was a bald eagle! It flew over the water, hovered there for a very brief moment, snatched a fish from the water and took off towards the trees on the cliff.

I was thrilled! I’ve never seen a bald eagle in the wild, and to see one grab a fish from the water an hours walk from my house was doubly exciting. This will go a long way to showing what a dork I am, but I actually shouted “WOW! That was amazing!” There wasn’t a human soul around to hear me, but I was that giddy with joy.

And, the registering what I was actually seeing and the pressing of the clickety-click-photo-trick button on my camera, happened about a second after it grabbed the fish. Doubly cool. I saw it and captured it.

Sorry the photo isn’t a lot sharper (I really need to get a better camera) but I still think that is a pretty awesome shot.

And this one is less distinct still, but you can see it flapping off to the trees behind it.

I suppose if you live up in Alaska, you might be a little jaded about seeing bald eagles. But this was a first for me. These magnificent birds haven’t been around in this part of the world in my lifetime, and it’s believed there are less than three dozen bald eagles in Ontario. I will definitely be back in this very spot in the hopes of seeing this display again. But as they say, there is something special about your first time.

I got in touch with these folks, Bird Studies Canada’s Southern Ontario Bald Eagle Monitoring Project, and sent them the photos and the precise location of where I’d seen the eagle.

Thank you eagle, for blessing me with a really awe inspiring moment.