Winter Retreat with Eagles

This past weekend, Norm and I made our annual winter retreat to Pere Marquette State Park near Grafton, Illinois, on the Illinois River just above its confluence with the mighty Mississippi. We enjoy the restored WPA-era stone lodge set in the midst of a natural wonderland. One of our reasons for the trip is to see eagles, which winter along the Mississippi and its tributaries. We weren't disappointed.




We woke up on Friday morning to a clear day and we spotted the eagle resting in a tree not far from the lodge. He or she was resting from an early morning fishing trip. After I got too close with the camera, the bird took flight (above) for the other side of the river, though. Although I tried to take a lot of eagle pictures the next day, these two turned out the best. You can just see the white head on the black body of the perching bird, if you look VERY closely.

The lodge itself was built in the 1930s and renovated in the 1990s. More work was being done while we were there, including refinishing the plank and peg pine floors in the dining room and replacing the log ends on the attic beams, among other projects. There are plans to upgrade the rooms in the coming year to bow to 21st century demands--like in-room microwaves and high speed internet access. Norm and I were returning from a midday walk in the woods to look for songbirds when I took this picture--he is keeping warm in his Florida Gulf Coast University hoodie.

As Friday waned, we went back to the river where we had spotted the eagle in the morning. The sunset began to color the hill to the east, above the migratory bird wildlife sanctuary. We startled a heron, and saw some amazing flight maneuvers by gulls, but no eagles this evening.

Just this magnificent sunset over the water of the Illinois River, still open to barge traffic at this time of the winter. During our stay we saw a lot of damaged trees from the ice storms at the end of November and again in mid-January. Nature has a lot of mending to do.

After two days and nights at Pere Marquette, we packed and headed home. It's only a 45-minute drive, so we stopped at the Riverlands Wildlife Sanctuary and Migratory Bird Refuge just west of the Alton bridge over the Mississippi. Barely into Missouri, this is one of the happenin' places for eagle watching this winter. The refuge biologists had counted 85 eagles the day we were there. The refuge comprises several ponds and marshes, along with some grassland, along the Mississippi just above the Melvin Price Lock and Dam. I counted some 40 roosting eagles, such as these in some trees above a freshwater pond. Although it was midday, the eagles were active--swooping down to the water to catch fish and circling overhead. Once in a while they would vie for a roosting spot or chase another eagle to try to steal a catch. It was windy and tooth-chattering cold, but we spent about an hour watching their antics, until we finally gave up and came home. We felt exhilarated and exhausted. The eagles should stay through February, so we hope to visit their winter haunt again before they head north in the spring.