My first Golden Eagle: 21-Apr-2003 - At home on the 21st: in the A.M. 3 Juncos, in the P.M. 1 White-throates Sparrow.

I started at Rossford Island View Park at 9:30. It was cloudy, with temps about 60. At Rossford, I observed: Eastern Phoebe, White-throated Sparrow, Catbird, 2 Brownthrashers, 1 Broadwing. 4 Hermit Thrushes, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Purple Martin, Chipping Sparrow, Ruby-crowned Kinglet. The Broadwing was moving from tree to tree within the park, and it finally soared up and flew by me so I verify that it was a Broadwing. I finished birding at RIVP at 10:15.

While driving by the grain elevators along Miami Street, it appeared that a Peregrine Falcon was attacking a Turkey Vulture. I didn't pull of the road soon enough. While driving by, I looked over my shoulder and saw the Falcon in a dive, heading towards the Vulture. When I did pull of the road, I could not locate either bird.

I drove around the western part of Ottawa NWR and observed: a hunting Northern Harrier, Horned Larks, American Kestrels, Red-tailed Hawks, Chipping Sparrow, Brown Thrasher, Blue-winged Teal.

I arrived at the Magee Marsh nature center at 11:20. While talking to Vic outside the center, a low-flying Osprey went by us. He appeared to be hunting, since he was moving slow and looking down at the water. Vic was doing the tower hawk watch from 9-3. He went back to the tower, and I walked the small trail around the pond by the nature center and tower. I rarely walk this trail, but someone had seen a Nashville Warbler earlier. Vic was on the boardwalk from 7-9 A.M., before going to the tower, and he saw a Tennessee Warbler and had a singing male Hooded Warbler.

Anyway, on the small trail by the nature center I observed: 5+ Palm Warblers, 5+ Yellow-rumps, 5+ Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Purple Martins, Brown Thrasher, Hermit Thrush, 2 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and White-eyed Vireo. But the best sighting on the trail and my best sighting of the year was seeing a low-flying (200 feet high) immature Golden Eagle drift directly over my head from the north. The winds were blowing from the southwest at 10-20 mph, and this bird came from the north. I
just figured it was going to be an immature Bald, but I looked at the bird anyway, since I never get tired of watching Bald Eagles. I had several nice sightings of local Balds on Monday.

I was surprised when I put the binos on the bird. Since the bird was so low, I could easily see it's markings on the wings and tail, and I knew it was an immature Golden. The bird creeped directly over my head. I saw it drift by the tower, and I was hoping Vic was still there. I hurried back to the tower, to check with him to make sure it really was an immature Golden Eagle, since I had never seen one before.

The bird went directly over Vic's head too, and he showed me the video he took, which is real nice. The bird filled up most of the screen. This happened around Noon. I remained on the tower with Vic until he was done with his hawk watch duty at 3:00 P.M. As usual, I had interesting conversations with Vic. I may do some database/web programming for him.

The raptor movement was really weird on Monday. Birds were coming from the north-northwest, especially the Broadwings. Vic had 12 species of raptors from the tower on Monday. He spotted a Rough-legged that I couldn't find. Vic uses 15 x 45 Cannons with the image stabilizer. I think for the day in all of my travels I had 11 species of raptors. I watched some Sharpies, Broadwings, Vultures, and Coopers from the tower. I also saw a Chimney Swift. Flight height of the birds was medium. I also saw a Yellow Warbler from the tower.

I visited the boardwalk for a bit, arriving there around 3:15. There I observed: Palms, Yellow-rumped, White-eyed Vireo, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, RCKI, Yellow Warbler, and Hooded Mergs. I saw a Snow Egret along the causeway when I was leaving.