My Disclaimer

I have spent most of my adult life working on the Mississippi River spying on bald eagles while piloting boats. There is a lot to look at, and time to look while traveling at an average breakneck speed of 6 mph! My wonderful wife claims this skill is not one I should use while driving our vehicles. It has been remarkable watching their numbers dramatically increase. The first few years , circa 1988+, on the Steamboat Julia Belle Swain's and Riverboat Twilight's 2 day Mississippi River Adventure to Chestnut Mountain Ski Resort, we were hard pressed to find eagles close enough to the boat for the passengers to see.

I remember it only being a few per week and once one was spotted, trying to direct our passengers' gaze to the correct tree, usually 1/2 mile or so away, proved to require as much a skill as piloting the boat. I described it as "looking down a golf course fairway looking for a golf ball in a tree, and the once you find it, you've found the bald eagle's head". Passengers seemed to be seeing more and more birds. I thought it was a result of my oratory skills improving to the point where Ray Charles could find the perched eagle I had been describing. I never thought the increased sightings were a result of there simply being more eagles . Funny how my "self confidence" works that way.

The last few seasons I spent on the Riverboat Twilight, circa 2005, we saw so many birds that my life was threatened by one of the crew members who'd grown sick of hearing me point them out on the boats public address system. I believe her words were something like this... "The next eagle you point out had better be singing and dancing, smoking a cigar, and whistling Dixie OR I'm gonna hurt you!". I'm still alive to tell the story. From 1988 when we would see a few per week to today, where I can see 20 to 30 and often more in my 6 hour watch in a pilot house, is an amazing change to have witnessed. It used to take a measure of skill to look for them, but now it is, at times, like looking for pigeons in Central Park (kinda). If I only saw bald and golden eagles living along the river, I would say I've seen something that most haven't. Watching them build nests, guard their eggs, feed the eaglets, eaglets peek over the top of the nest, venture out in the tree, and eventually fly, has been a special gift. I think it is something I would have imagined seeing only in the pages of National Geographic or on a Discovery Channel program.

I became obsessed trying to photograph and share with my friends what I get to see at work. I think most became a bit bored with my email updates so, I scaled back my eagle watch. Then it came to me..... I'll mark my river charts with the locations of the nests I see at work. This was to be for my own enjoyment and not for any other purpose, I began noting the location of all the nests on my river charts. The Ohio River from Pittsburgh to Cairo, the Mississippi River from Cairo to St Paul, and the Illinois River from Grafton to Lemont. It was a casual work, and I never stopped to count how many nests I had viewed.

And then, tragedy struck.....(dramatic music...DAAAA Daaaa duuuuuuh) .... my basement flooded and I lost 981 miles of Ohio River notes and 300 miles of Illinois River notes. I was crushed to say the least, All of my eagle observations were lost, not to mention my navigation notes for running the rivers. I began to rebuild my observations on new charts when I had an epiphany...I work with a very sophisticated GPS navigation system and I can use it to document GPS positions of all the eagle nests I see and save it to a blog or something to preserve the notes. TA DA!!!

I hope you enjoy my hobby. It is like an Easter (eagle) egg hunt. Please observe and respect that these are wild creatures and respect their habitat if you wish to try to locate the nests I've seen. I will add a few tips and notes. I work 35 feet above the surface of the river which assists in seeing into the trees. The nests are hard to see in the late spring and summer due to the foliage and the birds are less visible while they are tending to the eaglets during this time. Sometime in June the eaglets start to explore their tree homes and are fun to watch. In my opinion, a cottonwood tree is their preferred platform. I believe it is because of its' "airy" canopy and allowing a bird with an 8 foot wingspan to easily fly into it without injury to their wings. By comparison, think of a sugar maple with its dense canopy of small branches like a spiders web, easily making arrivals and departures hazardous (but I have seen nests in the crook of maples).

This is not a scientific presentation, nor do I claim to be an expert on eagles or anything else for that matter. The nests will have river milage and gps coordinates and the dates of observation. I hope to expand my observations to include how many birds I see during my watches. I am merely a grateful observer of the wonders God has placed on our planet.

With regards,
John

Monday, November 21, 2011

UMR River mile 545 Gone but not forgotten.




 

  This nest was 10 miles upstream of Savanna IL on an island on the Illinios side of the Mississippi River at the Island 257 dayboard.
42" 10.336 N , 90"14.715 W
UMR 545 (545 miles north of Cairo IL.)
Picture taken Apr. 2009

  These 2 pictures show 3 eagles, 2 adults and the head of the eaglet being fed. This spot was referred to as the "Two Big Trees" when I first came out to the Mississippi River in 1988. This name was given to this spot below the Island 257 dayboard by either Capt Trone or Capt Stier (My bet is that it was Capt Stier). It was one of the areas where the Julia Belle Swain and the Twilight could land at to exchange crew members and supplies when we passed each other everyday on the 2 day trips between Leclaire IA and Chestnut Mountain / Galena IL. 

  This nest was destroyed in 2010 during a storm/flood when its cottonwood tree was knocked down. Not to worry, I am happy to report that another nest was constructed about 1000 feet downt stream from where this one once stood. Pictures to follow.

OK, a few more pictures take June 2009.




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