The Mississippi River where I live in Davenport Iowa, attracts hundreds of eagles in the winter time. They gather in great numbers to fish around the lock and dam.
it wasn't always this way, but some people in the 80s crusaded to keep a lot of riverfront habitat for them.
Now it's a great winter hobby for many people to see who can get the best eagle photos. I live on the bluff about a half a mile from the river in the middle of the city. I come out my door sometimes to see an eagle sitting in a tree by my front porch.
I'm in awe of them, though they seem to barely notice me!
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For around two hundred years, since colonial times, there were no bald eagles in Pennsylvania. In 1980 there were three nesting pairs in the whole state. Now, in western PA, there are 26 nesting pairs known to be in a 10-county area with the possibility of other nests that have not yet been located by human observers. The two nests that have observation cameras keeping tabs on the birds each have two eaglets.
Their lives are sometimes like a soap opera. Last year after the first egg had been laid, a wind storm blew over the tree where one eagle couple had nested for the last several years. The built a new nest in a nearby tree at high speed, providing a suitable place for the female to lay what was believed to be her third egg (the second was probably lost when there was no suitable place to lay it).
Amazing creatures!
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Almost 20 years ago, friends and I were houseboating on Shasta Lake in the far north of California. I saw a bald eagle fly low over the lake, not far from me. It was beautiful and very moving. The are amazing animals.
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"The Fish and Wildlife Service’s main recovery goal was a minimum 800 breeding pairs in seven Western states. The agency believes it has achieved twice that amount, roughly 1,000 in California and 10,000 such pairs in other Western states."
800 x 2 = 11,000?
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I got it right after I hit submit - 800 breeding pairs x 7 states = 5600 x 2 = 11,200. Der.
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I made the same mistake as i read along. For clarity sake, it should say "...main recovery goal was a minimum 800 breeding pairs IN EACH of seven Western states."
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We are very fortunate to have some of these beautiful birds living in protected lands right here in southern Staten Island. New Yorkers!
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Would you like to see Bald Eagles? Come to the southern border of Oregon in February, in the Klamath Basin wetlands (there is a Winter Wings bird festival held during Presidents' Day weekend to attend). This is a historically major stop for migratory birds along the Pacific Flyway, and last month I saw literally hundreds of bald eagles standing along the dykes. They were highly visible even with the naked eye. It was wonderful birding.
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In the past 5 years I've lived in 4 different western states (NM, UT, WA, CO) out of these Washington and Colorado state have a amazing Eagle populations. In WA the Olympic Peninsula and the Skagit Valley have healthy populations and most of the time that I visited these areas you can spot bold or golden eagles. The Skagit valley has a wonderful Eagle Festival in Winter where you can see 20-30 eagles fishing on the river and resting in the trees.
In Colorado the Colorado river is a great place to see them all year round- not in great numbers but most of the weeks I see at least one or two flying.
I have some good photos: robertlabunski.com
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We also have eagles year round on northern Lake Roosevelt (Columbia River above Grand Coulee Dam). It's common to see them here in winter, but there are also resident pairs. Grand birds!.
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Sighting eagles at Mount Erie (north end of Fidalgo Island) is always a joy.
I live in SW Florida, where eagle habitat is rapidly disappearing due to "development." Eagles here on the gulf coast have adapted to human incursion by nesting closer to other eagles and right next door to humans. There's a nesting pair in an invasive Australian pine across the street behind my neighbors's condo. There's another pair less than a mile away in a stand of slash pines behind a strip mall.
I've photographed the eagles across the street for the past several years:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmc2LG13
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Love your photos.
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Beautiful photographs!! I love the baby eagles. Thank you for sharing.
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What wonderful photos! I especially liked the one of the two eagles sitting on the very top branches of two trees; they really look too big to be perching on such slender branches. You're very lucky to have such a ring-side seat. Hard to believe that they're now nesting so close to human habitation. Thank you for the link.
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Great story, but I'm puzzled by the recovery numbers: "The Fish and Wildlife Service’s main recovery goal was a minimum 800 breeding pairs in seven Western states. The agency believes it has achieved twice that amount, roughly 1,000 in California and 10,000 such pairs in other Western states." As written, it sounds like the agency has achieved 12x the goal, not double. Is something missing (ie a target, rather than a minimum)?
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