Hi - this is my first post, and I have followed with a great deal of interest the postings about all the birds around the area I grew up in - Nanticoke, Jarvis and Townsend. Today my husband, son and I went down to Heritage Day in Selkirk, and while there, I remembered there had been lots of sightings of Bald Eagles around the hydro generating station, the old Texaco and what was Stelco (then US Steel and finally Lake Erie Steel - I think).
We decided to drive across Rainham Road, and between Sandusk Road and the generating station saw three red tailed hawks and one other hawk that we were not 100% sure was a red tail. It was huge, but the back was very dark and we did not see the signature red flash on the tail He vanished pretty fast, but if anyone is familiar with another hawk in the area, we'd love to hear about it. We continued through Nanticoke toward Lake Erie Steel and at the T junction saw another 2 hawks - quite happily posing in the trees and along the fence line. Some good shots were taken, but sadly we do not have high powered cameras. We turned down the old lakeshore road, and as we headed toward Port Dover (on the south side of the plant) my son spotted a dark splotch in a tree along the waterfront. he pulled out his camera, zoomed in and sure enough identified a bald eagle. He got out to try to snap some pictures, and as he tried a second bald eagle flew in, clearly displaying it's colours. We drove back to an old closed road and walked in to the gate where we had a pretty good view before they took flight.. A few of the pictures clearly show the white heads and golden beaks - a definite identification (for us this is big as new birders!). This was all between about 3:15 and 3:45 pm today. We hope to be able to tag along on some of the outings in this area as we become more confident in our sightings,a s well as others around the province. Directions: >From Selkirk, travel west along Rainham road. Pass the Ontario Power >Generation plant on the left (south side). Go through the lights and then >through the village of Nanticoke. You will reach a T junction as you come to >the Steel plant. Turn Left onto Old Lakeshore Road. As you curve around the >property, you will see an old road that is now closed on the south side. It >still has the street numbers for the cottages on the green sign (I *think* >they were 172 - 180). You can park your car at the entrance to the old road >and walk in to the fence that marks the private property of the steel company. > From here the eagles were about 250 metres straight ahead on the top of an >old tree. If you have an old GPS, the original road is still clearly marked. Happy Birding! Sue Hilton Burlington, Ontario _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
