3 October 2014. Cayuga ON. A warm and blustery wind from all points south pulled leaves from trees and blew them around like well, snow. It should have been a tough day for birds, had it been my choice (as a bird) I would have stayed low. But who am I to call the shots? The census at the bird observatory had its interesting moments, it seemed to be a woodpecker day because we found three each of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Northern Flickers, Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers. Another immense flock of blackbirds, mostly Common Grackles, traced the course of the river. They were impossible to count as they streamed by, large squadrons sometimes splitting off to connect with other flights on the opposite bank.
Looking upriver I glimpsed a large bird dip down towards the river surface then peel away to vanish behind a willow. Osprey, I thought. But no, it was a young Bald Eagle. It came back into view, close to the river surface again, its bright yellow legs lowered and reaching, without luck, to snatch a meal, then wind-tossed, it peeled up and away like a war kite. That pause while it was behind the willow gave me time to get my camera ready and I managed to get a few shots, not great ones, but enough to be able to make out its white under-wings, the mark of a bird hatched just this year. Battling and playing with the wind like that, dipping and soaring, sometimes a victim of the wind other times master of it, this baby Bald Eagle was my Bird of the Day.