Bald Eagle Watch
O’Brien County Conservation hosts programs about bald eagles several times each year. Each one is different from the others. The “Bald Eagle Watch” hosted Saturday January 7 was organized as a traveling event. It was also an eagle survey. The target date is also set by the State of Iowa. Destinations to view and count bald eagles traversed 3 counties, O’Brien, Clay and Cherokee. At least 8 people took on the snow-covered and picturesque back roads for the birding event.
Lee Schoenewe, Clay County Conservation chair led the excursion. Schoenewe took over the annual event from Darwin Koenig, former O’Brien County Conservation Director following Koenig’s retirement in the mid 90s.
Starting at Prairie Heritage Center and traveling first to Wanata State Park, southeast of Peterson the 4-vehicle caravan stopped there briefly with no luck. They turned around and traveled back through Peterson and followed River Road into the breathtakingly beautiful hills. One bald eagle took flight while the group traveled west on the road. The bird-watchers took a brief pause to watch with binoculars and cameras, then followed River Road/Waterman Boulevard to a Little Sioux River landing known as “Burned Bridge.” The arrival of motorized vehicles and people on foot armed with binoculars and cameras sent 9 mature bald eagles and 2 immature into flight. One of the adults took to a tree limb overhanging the frozen river. The group joked, “He’s posing for pictures.”
Burned Bridge is located south of Waterman Boulevard on Wilson Avenue. The parade of bird watchers continued south on Wilson Avenue, across Highway 10 and on into Cherokee County.
Those 20-ish miles winding through very rural stretches alongside the Little Sioux River brought the group to a stop 7, maybe 8 times, including 1 at Barnes Area in Cherokee County. During those stops the treelines were scanned for roosting eagles. Twenty one mature eagles were spotted with another six immature eagles, according to Schoenewe.
The day was sunny with moderate winter temperatures with little or no wind. It was a really fun adventure. Schoenewe describes it as a normal day for the survey on this route.