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Where eagles land

Winter is anything but slow at birds' favorite gathering spots.

Benjamin Franklin was a wise man, but he was way off base when he proposed the turkey as a national symbol instead of the eagle.

Why? Because bald eagles are the perfect Americans. They're large, brash, opportunistic and easy to identify. And wherever they go, money follows.

Not long after the pesticide DDT was banned in 1972, bald eagle populations began to bounce back in the lower 48 states. Eagles were hard to spot in the summer, when they spread out over the north woods of Minnesota and Wisconsin, but in the winter, they'd gather to fish in the open water beneath dams or at the mouths of large rivers.

As their numbers grew, the eagles became a tourist attraction. People came from all over to watch them in action, soaring and diving, snatching fish spotted from a mile away, either in the river or in the talons of another bird.

Eagles don't really have lovable personalities. They gather not because they're social but because they're habitual thieves and think they might find something to steal, a behavior biologists call kleptoparasitism.

Eagles hate to share space, often chasing other eagles from their perches. And they love to eat dead things along roads, which often causes them to swoop in front of cars and suffer an early demise.

But, man, are bald eagles fun to watch.

Those haughty pale eyes, that 6-foot wing span, those wicked talons and the flesh-shredding beak — eagles are just plain cool. Everything about them is larger than life, right down to their nests, which are so big and sturdy bears sometimes climb into them to hibernate.

To watch an eagle wheeling and dipping through the air is treat enough. But the chance to see an airborne food fight or the tandem plummet of mating eagles brings tourists back again and again.

Flocks of tourists

In the 1980s, some of the riverside towns where eagles gathered began to promote them, putting spotting scopes on observation decks and holding eagle-watching weekends.

It turned out to be a huge economic boon for such places as Prairie du Sac and Sauk City, adjoining towns on the Wisconsin River near Baraboo. Hundreds of eagles spend the winter there, roosting in deep valleys nearby and fishing below a hydroelectric plant, whose turbines stun fish and make them easy pickings.

In 2005, a study showed that during the six weeks of peak eagle season, 50,000 tourists bring $1.2 million into the towns, known collectively as Sauk Prairie.

"For a community of 5,000, that's a lot of money," says Rich Van, a longtime member of the area's Ferry Bluff Eagle Council. "It used to be Sauk Prairie in the winter was just dead; they'd roll up the sidewalks. Now, it's a bustling place year-round. It's really changed the dynamic of the community."

In Minnesota, Wabasha was first to capitalize on the eagles, which congregate at the ice-free spot where the Chippewa River surges into the Mississippi. First, it built an observation deck downtown and staffed it with volunteers on winter weekends. Festivals were started. An eagle center set up shop in the visitors center, then acquired a storefront of its own.

Now, the National Eagle Center has its own brand-new building downtown, featuring three bald eagles that were injured and are unable to survive in the wild.

"People have always known Wabasha is a good place to see eagles," says MaryBeth Garrigan, the center's programming director. "Families, especially those with kids, love to come here. We call it a beak experience — you're within 5 feet, so you can't miss it."

Towns all along the Mississippi — Red Wing, Minn.; Prairie du Chien and Cassville, Wis.; Guttenberg and Dubuque, Iowa — also have signed onto the eagle express, sponsoring annual eagle-watching weekends. As bird populations have increased, it's no longer uncommon to spot an eagle, but that has only increased the number of tourists who want to do so.

"There are still a lot of people who have never seen an eagle, and they're just thrilled to see them," says Pat Manthey, avian ecologist for Wisconsin's DNR in La Crosse.

Manthey, who says she expects the annual eagle survey to find about 1,000 nesting pairs in Wisconsin, gives presentations at many eagle festivals. "We're still getting huge crowds of people, and it's growing," she says.

In Sauk Prairie, says Rich Van, surveys at eagle overlooks show 80 percent of the visitors are repeat visitors.

"What really happens is that only about 10 percent of people come for the Eagle Days," he says. "After that, they come explicitly not on the eagle weekend, so they don't have the crowds and they can watch the birds in a quieter environment."

Close proximity

In Sauk Prairie, the eagles are so close the town has to post signs asking visitors to watch from their cars and not slam doors; the eagles are easily frightened and may return to their evening roosts with empty stomachs, wasting the energy they need to survive severe cold.

Of course, people still do slam doors and get out of cars, emboldened by the eagles' proximity.

"People are standing there, and an eagle flies into the tree right overhead," Van says. "It's the bird's choice, and if you approach the tree, the eagle will fly at 100 feet. But people get the false idea they're not wary."

Eagles may tolerate people in winter because they need to eat, Manthey says, not because they like them. But that doesn't stop tourists from following them wherever they go.

"For some people, it's a mecca, an annual mecca to see the eagles," Garrigan says. "It's a phenomenon."

Trip Tips: Eagle-watching events

November-March: Outside the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minn., volunteers staff the EagleWatch observation deck 1-3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

January: Bald Eagle Watch in Dubuque, Iowa. 1-800-798-8844, www.visitdubuque.com.

Bald Eagle Days in the Quad Cities, an environmental fair, with flying demonstrations by eagles, hawks and owls from the World Bird Sanctuary in St. Louis and many other events. Admission. 309-788-5912, www.qccaexpocenter.com.

Bald Eagle bus tours from Stoney Creek Inn in Galena, Ill. Four-hour tours hosted by the Eagle Nature Foundation, $60, $40 for children under 17. In 2008, they're Jan. 12, Feb, 9, 16 and 23, and March 8. Reserve at 815-594-2306, www.eaglenature.com.

Bald Eagle Watching Days in Sauk Prairie, Wis. It features guided bus tours, Eagles in Wisconsin and Birds of Prey programs and a radio-tracking demonstration. On Saturdays at 10 a.m., Jan. 26 to March 1 in 2008, the Ferry Bluff Eagle Council, www.ferrybluffeaglecouncil.org, hosts eagle-watching bus tours, $5. To reserve, call 1-800-683-2453, www.saukprairie.com.

Eagle Watch Weekend in Guttenberg, Iowa. This antebellum Mississippi River town has a milelong riverside park and a lock and dam where eagles congregate. 1-877-252-2323, www.naturallyguttenberg.com.

Bald Eagle Days in Cassville, Wis. This town is just downriver from Guttenberg. There are raptor programs throughout the day and a candlelight hike in nearby Nelson Dewey State Park. In the morning, volunteers man spotting scopes in Riverside Park. 1-608-725-5855, www.cassville.org.

Bald Eagle Watch Weekend in Ottawa, Ill. This town in northern Illinois will feature activities at three locations: the Starved Rock Visitor Center, Starved Rock Lodge and the Illinois Waterway Visitor Center. 815-667-4054, www.flocktotherock.com.

February: Bald Eagle Appreciation Day in Prairie du Chien, Wis., and Effigy Mounds National Monument near Marquette, Iowa. Birding experts give programs and lead mini field trips, depending on weather. At the Wisconsin Travel Information Center, just off the bridge into town, volunteers man spotting scopes. 1-800-732-1673, www.prairieduchien.org, 1-563-873-3491, www.nps.gov/efmo.

Mid-February to mid-March: Eagle Spot Weekends in Red Wing, Minn. From 1 to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, volunteers answer questions and lend spotting scopes and binoculars in Colvill Park, just south of Red Wing off U.S. 61. 1-800-498-3444, www.redwing.org.

March: Soar With the Eagles festival in Wabasha. Activities include an eagle-watching car-caravan trip, guided houseboat cruises, children's activities,
a silent auction and a display of photo-contest entries. Check the schedule at 1-877-332-4537, www.nationaleaglecenter.org.

Other eagle-watching events will be held in Muscatine, Keokuk and LeClaire, Iowa; and Rock Island, Quincy, Alton and Grafton, Ill. For more information, call the Mississippi River Visitors Center in Rock Island, 1-309-794-5338, www.mvr.usace.army.mil/missriver/.

In Wabasha, the National Eagle Center is open daily. Check for special programs and feeding schedule, 1-651-565-4989 or 1-877-332-4537, www.nationaleaglecenter.org.

For more information about bald eagles, check www.baldeagleinfo.com, which includes a nifty movie from National Geographic.

Finding eagles

If you want to watch eagles, the most important thing to know is they work only as hard as they have to.

When lakes up north start to freeze, eagles will head for the nearest open patch. In December, that's often on the Mississippi River between Red Wing and Wabasha or even St. Paul.

"They're still trying to decide where to spend the winter," says Pat Manthey of the Wisconsin DNR. "We call them indeterminate migrators. They're not like the swallows of Capistrano that come back every year. Eagles only go as far as they need to go to find what they need."

If there's a cold snap in December, they'll head south, perhaps to Illinois. But some will stop below a dam or at the mouth of a river; if the fishing is good, they'll stay. Some discover commercial fishing operations, such as the one in Ferryville, Wis., where they can wait for cast-off fish. Others find a field where hog or poultry farmers have discarded dead animals or ground them up and spread them with manure.

"(One year), I was sending people to a road between Independence and Arcadia in Wisconsin because 200 to 300 eagles were sitting in a farm field eating chicken guts," said MaryBeth Garrigan of the National Eagle Center in Wabasha.

But eventually, snow drives eagles out of the fields.

"Eagles have no sense of smell, so they have to depend on their eyesight," Garrigan says. "Once it snows, they have to move to the river and depend on fishing."

Eagle watchers on the Upper Mississippi actually welcome snow and severe cold, because it forces the eagles to congregate where there's open water.

Besides open water, they need a protected place to sleep, such as a valley with big, mature oak trees. From there, they'll fly to the river in the mornings, just after daybreak, then return to their roosts until mid-afternoon, when they'll make another fishing trip to stock up for the night.

When it's very cold, the eagles hunker down in cottonwoods along the river, conserving energy; when the air warms up, they'll spend more time flying. In February, eagles that had flown south start to move north, typically reaching Minnesota by March. And as the weather warms, eagles will start to show courting behavior.

For the best luck finding eagles, go early in the day or later in the afternoon. Dress warmly and bring binoculars. Along rivers, look for dark blobs in cottonwood trees.

In Minnesota, the most reliable place to see eagles is Reads Landing, across from the mouth of the Chippewa River just north of Wabasha; there's a pullout on Minnesota 61. Dams also are good places to look; the one at Hastings is easy to reach, just west of the bridge.

For information about others between Minneapolis and Guttenberg, check www.mvp-wc.usace.army.mil/projects/lock_dam.shtml.

Last updated on September 12, 2008

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