Home >  Plan a trip >  Nature >  Birds & wildlife >  Looking for bald eagles

Other stories in "Birds & wildlife"

• Playing the field in Wisconsin
  In April, the kooky courtship of prairie chickens brings out the bird watchers.
• Ely and the three bears
  At the North American Bear Center, visitors meet some big personalities.
• Beguiled by bears
  In northern Minnesota, the man who loved bears left a legacy for thousands.
• Where eagles land
  Winter is anything but slow at the big birds' favorite gathering spots.
• Owl aboard
  In southeast Minnesota, a live-wire named Alice is the star of a late-winter festival.
• Birding in spring
  When the birds return, festivals follow.
• Open sesame on the sloughs
  In winter, eagle-watchers and snowshoers can explore frozen Mississippi byways.
• Winter weekend in Monticello
  Come for the swans; stay for the shopping and skiing.
• Snow birds
  A wintering flock of trumpeter swans has put Monticello on the map.
• Wings over Alma
  Tundra-swan watchers have a honkin' good time during the November migration.
• Life on Horicon Marsh
  At an avian rest stop, humans learn about life on the wing.
• Hawk heaven
  On a ridgetop in Duluth, bird watchers keep eyes on the skies.
• All eyes on Wabasha
  Eagles are drawn to this Mississippi River town, along with flocks of binocular-toting visitors.
• Bird walks
  In spring, a symphony of trills and chirps draws hikers into the woods.
• Counting birds
  At Christmas, birders go afield for the annual census.

Looking for bald eagles

In winter, the cold forces the birds to go where they're easier to see.

If you want to find 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 of water. In December, that's often on the northern stretches of the Mississippi River flyway, between Red Wing and Wabasha, Minn.

"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 as far as Illinois. But some will stop below a dam or at the mouth of a river, and 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. For the best chance of seeing them fly, go out early on a warm day after a cold snap, when they'll be hunting for food.

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.

If you get close, don't startle the eagles by slamming car doors or making sudden movements, or they may return to their evening roosts with empty stomachs, wasting the energy they need to survive in the severe cold.

In Minnesota, the most reliable place to see eagles is Reads Landing, a tiny settlement across from the mouth of the Chippewa River just north of Wabasha. Often, eagles fly overhead. There's also a nearby pullout on Minnesota 61 at Camp Lacupolis.

Farther down Minnesota 61, past its junction with I-90, the rest stop/picnic area at Dresbach is a good place to spot eagles. It's right across the river from Nelson Park at the northern tip of French Island in La Crosse, where there's a waterfowl viewing platform.

To get to Nelson Park, take Wisconsin 35-53 to the Oktoberfest grounds and turn west on Clinton Street. Go to Bainbridge Street and turn right. Take a left on Goodard Street, which turns into Lakeshore Drive. Follow it to the park.

In south-central Wisconsin, a dam on the Wisconsin River at Prairie du Sac is a good place to see eagles. Hydroelectric turbines stun the fish going through, making them easy pickings for eagles, and valleys amid the bluffs provide sheltered roosts.

Dams on the Mississippi River always are good places to look because they keep patches of water open all winter. There are 12 locks and dams between Minneapolis and Guttenberg, Iowa.

In Alma, Wis., across from Wabasha, the dam is right downtown, and eagles are easily seen from a platform. At the dam in Genoa, Wis., eagles gather to feed on shad cast off by ice fishermen.

Prairie du Sac and towns along the Upper Mississippi hold eagle-watching events and tours from early January through March. For details, see Where eagles land.

For information on launching a winter eagle-watching excursion between Wabasha, Minn., and Genoa, Wis., see Open sesame on the sloughs. In winter, sloughs that are buggy and wet in summer are easily navigated by snowshoe.

Last updated on December 21, 2009