Eagles and Barges on the Mississippi.
My love of photographing eagles grew while I was living in Colorado. While I lived in the Alton, Illinois area I had never realized that there was such a large population of bald eagles living and migrating down the river. Thousands of bald eagles winter along the Mississippi near the lock and dams near my old hometown. Turbulence created by the dams and the barges driving through the ice provide open water and a multitude of stunned fish for eagles to feast on.
Bald eagles from colder regions migrate to survive during the winter. In October, eagles in Canada and the northern reaches of Minnesota and Wisconsin begin to leave and by mid-November, adult eagles that nest in these colder areas will also start to head south as their nesting lakes begin to freeze. It’s not the cold itself that poses the greatest danger when winter sets in. These birds are actually quite rugged. Instead it’s the need for a stable food source that drives the migrations. Living in the cold requires more energy, and thus more food and their primary food source is fish. When ice begins to form their access to food is cut off, and eagles move to where the water is still open. The migrating eagles make their way south riding thermals that rise from the bluffs and hillsides lining the river corridor, sometimes traveling over 200 miles in a day in ideal conditions. In time, many will find their way to the Upper Mississippi River Valley, where stretches of the river are fed by tributary waters and do not freeze and barges, lock and dams provide access to open water and fish. |
house on the bluffs
next to the river hundreds of feet below that create the thermals eagles ride on the Great River Road is also seen below |
Hundreds of barges crash through the ice creating open water and large chunks of Ice eagles and other migratory birds can float down the river on looking for food while expending little or no energy.
But I was there for the eagles
Searching high above while gently riding the wind.
From the trees on shore.
Hope you enjoyed.