Part 2 of Our Sunday Afternoon Drive

The rest of our drive last Sunday consisted of driving home, but it's a nice drive up from Eugenia to Meaford, and we saw a Bald Eagle!  What a surprise!  They have recovered of course from the DDT scares many years ago, but they are still fairly infrequent in an inland location like this.

As we drove off the causeway and left Lake Eugenia we passed under the Osprey nest.  This has been here, and occupied during the breeding season, as long as we can remember.  The nest just seems to get bigger every year, and this year features some scraps from a torn blue tarp.

We drove through the village and headed north, passing under the new Eagle's Summit Nature Reserve, purchased by the Bruce Trail Conservancy a few months ago.  This is one of the big cliffs along the Niagara Escarpment, one I've actually walked out to see.

Then it was down the long hill into the village of Kimberley, a place we're both very familiar with.

It was after we'd gone up the long slope of the valley on the other side that we spotted the Bald Eagle sitting in a field beside the road.  Too far away for good photography with a phone, this photo is uncropped to show you what we saw.

I cropped this photo down as far as I dared, and frankly I'm astonished that it turned out this well.  It was impossible to tell what it was eating, but there were obviously remnants of an animal that had been torn apart, perhaps a coyote kill.

Then it was on to Meaford where I've noted in previous years the big willows turning bright yellow.  I'm counting five of them in this photo, the blue waters of Georgian Bay beyond.

And here's one of those willows as we got closer.  We always watch for the willows turning, one of the obvious signs of spring here.  Thank goodness, it's about time.  Still 2-4 feet of snow in the front yard, but it's sunny and melting quickly now.