On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
pat
Golden Eagles are found primarily in the west, but some of them spend the winter here in the Driftless region of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.
The National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN, organizes a Golden Eagle Survey each January. For the past few years I have been fortunate to accompany a survey participant who knows where to look for these rare birds. (This year’s survey found a total of 126 Goldens. We reported 4 of them.)
This year, after our survey, I returned to one of the spots where we have most often found one or two birds, and I waited, with camera, long lens (400mm + 1.4x extender) and tripod.
This is the first shot I got.
It’s always exciting to see one of these birds soaring over the ridge and above the valley. I have managed to get a few shots, but because they were always very far away, it is very difficult to get a sharp photo.
A few days later. This is most likely the same bird, still too far away for a good shot.
When I went looking at photos from past years, I unexpectedly found another Golden, taken when I was photographing Bald Eagles on the Mississippi. This might have been around Wabasha, MN, near the National Eagle Center.
Then I found this. I had attended a Golden Eagle program at the Eagle Center, and after the presentation we drove out in the hills and our guide and presenter took us to a place where we were pretty sure to see a Golden, and sure enough there it was.
Note the golden nape of the neck.
Back to the present, one day as I was waiting for the Golden to appear, this Red-tailed Hawk was flying around the valley. So I photographed it.
And one day, frustrated that there was no sign of the Golden, I stopped on the side of the road to photograph some wild turkeys in a field. As soon as I had the camera positioned on the beanbag on top of the car, this is what I saw in the viewfinder.
I got several shots, a bit too far away to be sharp, but I was able to ID it as a light morph juvenile Rough-legged Hawk. We always find several in these valleys, but this is the first one I have photographed and identified.
They breed in the Arctic and come down here in the winter to be counted in our Golden Eagle Survey. This year there were 154 reported, the highest since the survey began. There were only 54 reported in 2017.
Another photo of the Rough-legged Hawk.
Bald Eagles are common on the Mississippi, and I have been able to get a lot of photos of flying eagles. Here’s one with a fish in his claws.
And one year we had a fish-feeding frenzy of eagles on the river next to Riverside Park.
I sat for hours getting some great photos.
Here a couple of juveniles begin to harass an adult.
Finally, the adult flies away with his fish, and the juveniles in hot pursuit.
Johnny's mom
Wow! Beautiful birds. Three in one frame- mind blown. I think I saw one in all my life, while camping in Vermont. The hugeness was stunning. HUGE.
raven
I used to go fishing at Keokuk Iowa on the big river. There are eagles on the bluffs north of there but I never was able to see one.
Laura Too
Beautiful! Thanks for the reminder, I need to get down there soon.
mvr
Thanks for these!
I love to flyfish in the Driftless Region – the lack of glacial drift leaves limestone close to the surface resulting in lots of spring-fed streams and good PH water thus sustaining healthy trout populations. One memory is of driving to Waterloo Creek in Iowa when we surprised an eagle trying to take off with a deer carcass that was by the side of the road. It was able to drag it but the carcass was too big for the eagle to become fully airborne while carrying it. It was amusing to watch until the eagle flew off without the carcass.
MelissaM
These are great, thanks!
pluky
One thing one doesn’t get from the pictures is just how big these birds are.
LivinginExile
@raven: The other day we were driving.back.to Carthage.from Keokuk. About halfway between towns a.bunch of crows were after an eagle on the ground. Mrs. Exile thought the eagle had a crow in his talons.
sherparick
Remember taking a boat down the Mississippi near LaCrosse 35 years ago during the summer. There must have been 20 bald eagles circling overhead and flying up and down the river. Amazing sight and worth the trip.
StringOnAStick
Large birds are amazing, one doesn’t realize how big they are until you are lucky enough to be close. When we were in Patagonia, a condor came over a ridge we were on, very close to us; all of us ducked instinctively.
pat
@pluky:
The National Eagle Center has live birds on display so you can get an up-close idea of their size.
Also, in the valleys where we look for the Goldens, there are 10 times as many Bald Eagles (1433 this year.) They hang around the streams that stay open all year, with water coming from hot springs.
4D*hiker
Great post and pics. Thanks!
JanieM
Interesting info and great pics. I have seen quite a few bald eagles, but never up close. I’ll have to try harder, because I don’t really have a sense of how big they are. They do look rather majestic, though, soaring and floating high above the lake, or my house, as if they couldn’t be bothered to do anything so trivial as to flap a wing.
way2blue
pat, your photos of the bald eagles fighting over fish are amazing! I would see bald eagle tracks (along with bear tracks) in damp beach sand while working on Quinault tribal land, Washington. One day—walking the coast from the Raft River to the Queets River, we spotted 12 eagles perched in the trees above us. No photos, but very cool.
neldob
Cool pics! And watch your little dogs when they are around. My friend lost one in a blink of an eye and another came close.
J R in WV
My parents house was at the end of a long high ridge above our home town, and the ridge created updrafts so that many raptors would soar in giant circles to gain altitude to head south for the winter.
One beautiful fall day my dad and I watched a Golden eagle circle above us with a pair of 15x binoculars until it was invisible in the distance. Probably an hour from just above the house til invisible in the distance. Back in the late 1970s IIRC.
Just this morning I saw a Pileated Woodpecker fly across the creek beside our current home — then it shrieked several times like the tiny dinosaur they are. The size of a crow, but so much more interesting!