Dec 19th sighting

by Michael Regan
(Stirling, Ontario, Canada)

Was headed to work in the car about 9am December 19th 2012 just 3 miles north of Stirling, Ontario.

It was a sunny morning and I saw this large bird in the distance heading north east. I watched it approach through the windshield and as it got close enough I was astounded to see this large dark bird with a white head shining in the morning sun.

I thought to myself that it must be a Bald Eagle but I didn't think this species could be found in Ontario. I thought that they were just a west coast bird.

I wanted to find out so went to the internet. Lo and behold I find, although relatively rare, that they do exist in Ontario.

How lucky was I to have seen this this creature.

*UPDATE - Sighting Number 2*

This is almost hard to believe and I was hesitant about posting this for fear of the,"Oh sure and I saw Big Foot the other day" comments. I am going to ask one of our friends that is into interpreting things like this if there is an omen or meaning to my second ever Bald Eagle sighting and in a space of 4 days.

We left Friday afternoon December 21st to visit our close friends for our annual X-mas get together. These friends live on Black Lake, a few miles south east of Perth Ontario.

It was about nine am Saturday and my friend had just brought in an armful of firewood to feed the wood stove. I was sipping on a coffee and looking out over the lake. It was so beautiful as they had received almost a foot of wet snow that Friday and it had frozen onto the tree branches like a hoar frost.

As I watched I could see a large bird heading our way off shore but parallel to the shore. I motioned to my friend to look and as it passed in front of their home again a very distinguishable white head and some white tipped tail feathers could be plainly seen. I had not spotted the white tail feathers on the Eagle I had seen on the 19th of December north of Stirling.

My friend went on to tell me that they had seen Eagles on the lake somewhat often over the years but not at all this past year.

I can hardly believe I have seen two of these magnificent birds within a very short time frame after never having seen one for the first 66 years of my life.

A real Ripley's story.

Thank you, Michael, for telling us about your Bald Eagle sightings.

I too, saw one yesterday, near the Grand River where the 401 crosses the river close to highway 8 near Kitchener and Cambridge - it really is a wonderful sight to see!

Thanks for letting us know about your second sighting - if you see another, please let us know!