Golden and Bald! The National Eagle Center

  Last Friday (the 18th) my cousin Susie and I, along with my mom's cousin Sylvia, went to the National Eagle Center.  The National Eagle Center is in Wabasha Minnesota.  Wabasha is a small town along the Mississippi River.  And Wabasha like many of the little river towns has a large eagle population.  La Crosse, Winona, Prairie Du Chien, Red Wing, you name one they all have loads of 'em. 

And Wabasha much like La Crosse has a large wintering population of eagles.  By the dams there is a large spot of open water.  They like this.  Literally hundreds at any given moment, trust me it is awesome to see.  Now while we were in Wabasha, there wasn't bunches of eagles flying around.  The warm weather had opened up much of the river and they were on the move.  But during the 60ish mile drive to Wabasha there were tons flying around, hanging out on the river and just being amazing! (I love Minnesota)

But at the Eagle Center I got closer to eagles than I ever thought possible.  They are so beautiful up close.  Hell, they are pretty darned awesome from a distance too.  There were 3 Bald Eagles and one Golden Eagle at the eagle center.  They aren't as big as I expected, I mean they are big and have a huge wingspans, but I figured they weighed lots more than the 8-12 pounds they do.  Got to watch one eat, and of course it decided to take a dump too (lovely I know).  But hey, I am not gonna share what I learned about that function...

None the less, I loved it, probably because I love eagles.

Wild Thing: Eagles--You Know the Bald Ones!

Ok, so my days are off, and I totally thought yesterday was Monday, at least in relation to having a blog post up and running.  This one is about Eagles.  You know the bald ones, they are an endangered species and the national bird and somewhat rare to see.  Well, where I live in South Eastern Minnesota they are really common, so much so that as a youngster I had to remind myself that they are endangered.  A good day on the river and you'll see 20 in the 30 miles between Winona and La Crosse... and if you go further down the river you can add about 20 more to that.



 

 
Now don't get me wrong, it is still really exciting to see them... hell, when I was in 1st grade we went to see the bridge removal in Wabasha (so about 1991ish) and everybody but me got distacted by a soaring eagle.  And most of them missed the bridge falling, but not me!  I knew what I was there to see.  I remember the eagle too, but the bridge was way cooler.  So they are common in some areas and my little corner of the world is one.

I have gotten really good at spotting them over the years.  You'd think that bright white head would stick out like a sore thumb, it does, sometimes.  Sometimes it is the lack of a head that you notice, like when the sky is all gray and cloudy.  They have honkin' nests, and last count was something like 12-16 nests between Winona and La Crosse (on the MN side).... WOW!!!!  They like to hang out at the dams come winter time, it is the broken ice that brings them in.  Many eagles winter in the La Crosse area.

And if you cross the grade from La Crescent to La Crosse at the right time you can sometimes see over 100 eagles at once.  Many are adults but there are some juveniles.  Even with out the white head, the babies still have that eagle shape.  Which is where all the pictures came from.