Eagle spotting in Illinois

Watchful

Watchful

Joined
Dec 8, 2004
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I've been alerted that this year may be the best in decades for eagle spotting. Hundreds have gathered in Illinois, and my wife "arm twisted" me to take the kids.

I'm not a great photographer, and I did not have a real zoom lens, and I was cold!!! But here's the best of what I got.

Here's a pair of bald eagles swooping down for a closer look. Any fish?
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Nope. No fish--so this hungry guy swoops back up for a higher view.
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This tree is about an eighth of a mile away (about 200m). You can see how big these guys are. And golden eagles, whom I've seen in summer, are about two times larger than this!
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Every bird in this tree is an eagle. I lost count around 42 (looking again, I'm at 50+). The boys and I walked as close to this tree as we could get--the noise was amazing. We found a lot of feathers, but left them where we found them.
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How cold was it? 11 degrees (-12C) was the high that day. Thank goodness the wind was slight! I took this photo because the waterways were so frozen that only little patches of fresh water were visible, so the eagles were really congregating around any open patches they could find.
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I've seen quite a few bald eagles here in Nebraska this winter as well. Three in December. Have not seen any down here in Lincoln, but that's normal. Hopefully next weekend I will get to take a trip back up North, maybe there will be a couple around. Nice pictures. Never knew that many eagles would gather up in one spot, that's a bunch of them hanging out in those trees!
 
hdglock said:
Cool pics. I enjoy seeing Eagles, hopefully the population keeps growing
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It is indeed growing. Each year has had a higher population than before, but this year they've boomed. And if the eagles are strong, the whole ecosystem in that area is sound.

BushcraftBrainTrust said:
Where did you see the eagles? I live in the NW suburbs of Chicago and would love to check that out. Thanks
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Generally, where 39 and 80 meet...

More exactly.... East of Route 178, West of Ottawa IL, on McKinley Road... on the North bank of the Illinois River, across from Starved Rock. Less "touristy" there.

I would think with the warmer weather, the fishing is excellent now so they'd be more active.
 
I have seen two baldies (mated pair?) around northern Virginia in recent years.

It's good to see a magnificent bird coming back.:thumbup:
 
Alton Ill is supposed to be a great place. We have them here on the Upper Delaware River but not in the huge numbers you saw.Remember that this time of year you start to see courting flights !! The pairs swoop down to river level then up high ,repeating this again and again. Others like the broad winged hawks I saw yesterday are also doing their courting flights. Courting flights usually exhibit things not otherwise normal flight for the birds.
 
On some property my family owns in Northern Michigan (NE Lower Peninsula) we've had a mating pair for about 10 years now. We see them fishing over our lake all the time. Watched one of them try to grab a duckling that got seperated from its family for about 15 minutes last summer. Everytime the eagle would get close the duckling would dive under and the eagle would go circle again. The eagle finally gave up and flew off.

What's weird is that I've seen the nest, and seen the adults in the nest, but never have actually seen any juveniles around. They're really making a comeback in Michigan, and I saw one grab a rabbit of a highway shoulder right in front of my car a few weeks ago.
 
I took a walk along western Lake Erie today, and this is all I managed...
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Starved Rock area is a great place to spend the day. Wintering area for that Great bird!
 
Watchful said:
I've been alerted that this year may be the best in decades for eagle spotting. Hundreds have gathered in Illinois, and my wife "arm twisted" me to take the kids.

I'm not a great photographer, and I did not have a real zoom lens, and I was cold!!! But here's the best of what I got.

This tree is about an eighth of a mile away (about 200m). You can see how big these guys are. And golden eagles, whom I've seen in summer, are about two times larger than this!
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Birds of prey are incredible. I'm somewhat confused by this comment though. Golden Eagles are slightly smaller than Bald Eagle. Not much but they are smaller.

Great pics by the way. Whenever I cross the Mississippi into Illinois I am greated by a similar sight.:thumbup:
 
protourist said:
I'm somewhat confused by this comment though. Golden Eagles are slightly smaller than Bald Eagle. Not much but they are smaller.
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Hmmm. Not up around here. The golden's got quite a few pounds on the bald.

I know that golden eagle varieties differ a bit in size...:confused:
 
Thats awesome, I wish i lived closer, I live in The naperville/warrenville area. We have a lot of wooded areas but nothin like down south of I-80
 
I recall driving back at dusk along a backroad up around Land O Lakes, Wi. An eagle was on a deer carcass and it was a Huge bird. His wings easily were the length of the deer.
 
Really cool! I have to get back out to the river to see if I can spot any. There are probably about two dozen total around here but whether you see them or not is quite hit or miss.
 
In the past half dozen years, we've been getting about a dozen or so show up on Lake Champlain here in northern New York. In the next month or so the lake will start to thaw and migratory ducks will start to show up. Eagles will fly down low over them and try to scare the ducks up off the water, and then try to snag one in midair. Great spectator sport, we park along the lake and watch them. Once I saw a couple of them dancing around on top of an ice flow, fighting over a piece of carrion (fish or duck).
 
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