Humans aren’t the only ones who search out warmer waters and fresh seafood during the dark days of winter.
Some bald eagles head south as well, departing from Canada, Minnesota and Wisconsin for the (relatively) balmy temperatures of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa.
Drawn to unfrozen stretches of river, the majestic visitors — marked by snow-white heads, lemon-yellow beaks and wingspans of up to 8 feet — can be seen by the dozens on the Mississippi River in January and February, fishing for their meals and perching in bare trees.
“You don’t just see an eagle in its natural habitat — you (can sometimes) see 50 or 100. Sometimes even more than that,” said American Birding Association webmaster Greg Neise, who has been birding in Chicago since the 1970s. “They gather in these big flocks around the dams.”
Prime eagle-viewing season is now underway, both on the Mississippi and on smaller Illinois rivers, with events such as the annual Great River Eagles Days in Quincy on Saturday and Sunday. There are also options for those who want to try eagle-spotting on the Fox and Des Plaines rivers, check out the most popular site for local viewing, or drive three to four hours in search of a spectacle.
Starved Rock State Park in Utica is Neise’s top pick for beginner eagle-spotting in the Chicago area. Located 94 miles southwest of the city, Starved Rock offers the chance to hike 0.3 miles up 65 steps to a good viewing point high above the Illinois River. If you have binoculars, bring them, and wear hiking shoes. The trail can be icy. Another option is the elevated deck at the Illinois Waterway Visitors Center, just across the river from the park.
“You can get a pretty good view of eagles fishing,” Neise said.
Last week, Starved Rock counted more than 26 eagles, according to Lisa Sons, a natural resources coordinator for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The park has resident eagles as well as winter visitors, and all are drawn to the churning pockets of open water created by the Starved Rock Lock and Dam.
“It’s kind of like a free fish buffet,” Sons said.
There are no guarantees when it comes to eagle viewing, but in January the odds are good at Starved Rock, Sons said: “Especially with these colder temperatures that are happening this week, you’ll see at least one. If not, you’re not looking hard enough.”
For those with accessibility issues, there’s a drive along the river from the Starved Rock boat ramp to the main parking lot; look for eagles perched on tall cottonwood and sycamore trees. There’s also a stationary viewing scope beside the river, just across the lawn from the visitors center.
For those willing to travel to the Mississippi, where eagles are even more plentiful, resources such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rock Island District eagle count webpage — detailing the number of birds counted each Wednesday at various locations along the Mississippi River — remove some of the guesswork.
“Lock and Dam 16, 17 and 18 are seeing numbers in the hundreds,” said Bailey Anderegg, a park ranger for the Army Corps of Engineers.
Lock 18, about 240 miles southwest of Chicago in Burlington, Iowa, has seen particularly high numbers, she said. On Jan. 19, rangers counted 290 adult eagles and 166 juveniles.
“This is starting to be peak eagle season, so you will start seeing more and more as we get into the end of January, the beginning of February. That’s typically when we see our biggest numbers,” said Anderegg.
Lock 13, which is closer to Chicago in Fulton, Illinois, is also attracting eagles, with 38 adults counted by park rangers on Jan 19.
Lock 14 near Le Claire, Iowa, is a big favorite among birding clubs and photographers, due to an island that allows viewers to get closer to the birds, Neise said. In 2017, Lock 14 made an Audubon magazine list of five eagle-photography hot spots nationwide.
“A lot of people say that’s the best place (for eagle viewing) within striking distance of Chicago,” Neise said.
But Lock 14 isn’t attracting eagles in large numbers at this point, with the latest Army Corps of Engineers count yielding only 17 adult birds.
Eagles are a big conservation success story, both for Illinois and the nation. Habitat destruction and hunting took a heavy toll on the birds, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. And after World War II, the pesticide DDT interfered with the bald eagle’s ability to produce sturdy eggs, causing further decline.
By 1963, there were only 417 known nesting pairs of bald eagles in the low 48 states, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior, and 10 years later the birds were classified as endangered throughout most of the country. But the eagles have bounced back, with the aid of federal law prohibiting eagle hunting and a ban on DDT. There are now an estimated 316,700 bald eagles in the lower 48 states, and the birds are a fairly common sight in the Chicago area.
Along the Fox River, almost any dam with open water will draw a few eagles this time of year, Neise said.
On the Des Plaines River, look, again, for open water. There’s an eagle’s nest near Lyons, less than a mile from a rocky area of the Des Plaines River where the water is slow to freeze, Neise said. If the rocky area — just north of the intersection of Joliet Avenue and Ogden Avenue — remains unfrozen, the Lyons eagle pair may try to fish there.
“They’re an opportunistic bird of prey — and they’re quite lazy, to be honest,” said Sons. “So they’re going to go wherever there’s the best source of food and it’s easiest to catch.”
