This year, the Dubuque, Iowa Eagle Watch organizers invited the World Bird Sanctuary of St. Louis to bring a captive bald eagle so families could get as close a look as possible without feeling the winter chill. (Photo by Shawn Allee)
The American bald eagle is the Endangered Species Act’s poster child, it’s Come-back
kid. This time of year, a lot of towns organize eagle watches to celebrate the success
story and to attract tourists. Reporter Shawn Allee couldn’t resist visiting one:
Transcript
The American bald eagle is the Endangered Species Act’s poster child, it’s Come-back
kid. This time of year, a lot of towns organize eagle watches to celebrate the success
story and to attract tourists. Reporter Shawn Allee couldn’t resist visiting one:
I wasn’t exactly sure where to spot eagles in Dubuque, Iowa, so for the annual Eagle Watch, I
started indoors – at the city’s convention center.
There were plenty of eagle-related knick-knacks for sale – like eagle bobble-heads, plush toys,
and photos.
But locals there told me where to find eagles, and why the Eagle Watch means so much.
“Twenty years ago, we read about eagles, we heard about eagles but we never ever saw
one.”
That’s Dubuque photographer, Robert Eichman.
Eichman: “I’ve been taking pictures for 65 years. I probably never got a picture of an eagle
until about 7 or 8 years ago, so I have witnessed their comeback.”
Allee: “So, now this is one of their hotspots.”
Eichman: “Right. This time of year, there may be four- to five-hundred eagles roosting on
the bluffs on either side of the river.”
Eichman said the best place to see them is on the Mississippi River. There’s a dam that stops the
river – and a lock that let’s boats through. He suggested I try the Eagle Watch trolley.
Allee: “Hi there. Are you going to the lock?”
Driver: “Yeah.”
Allee: “Great.”
Dubuque’s had an Eagle Watch event for twenty one years, but dozens of towns in the
upper Midwest sponsor them in January and February.
Eagles were declared endangered in the early seventies because a pesticide was killing their
young. They’re now off the federal endangered and threatened list.
Seeing an eagle is still novel enough that there’s a small tourist industry built around their winter
hunting grounds.
Driver: “Right up here to the left folks, there are four, five, six right in a row.”
Allee: “There they are. It’s amazing. I’ll get out here.”
I’d seen a few eagles before but never this many at once; they were in trees and swooping over
the river. I headed to a lookout run by the army corps of engineers.
Park ranger Bret Streckwald was there to answer questions.
Allee: “Why is it this is such a good location to see bald eagles in the winter time?”
Streckwald: “Well, it’s the lock and dam, and they’re primary food is fish.”
Allee: “So, on our left, it’s solid ice on the Mississippi River, then what do we see on the
right?”
Streckwald: “Open water. The dam keeps the water open and the fish go through the dam
and they’re stunned a little bit, and it makes it pretty easy for the eagles to feed on them.”
Allee: “Hardly seems fair, but it keeps the eagles pretty healthy.”
Streckwald: “Yeah, they’re all pretty well-fed.”
Allee: “So what do you have set up here?”
Streckwald: “We have some spotting scopes set up on the various eagles that are stationary
and obviously we have the birds that are flying. We have a lot of people that like to take
pictures.”
Allee: “I don’t know how good this shot is going to be with my very amateurish camera,
but…”
Boy: “Dad – I saw one in the telescope. I saw one in the telescope flying! Whoa … ahuh.”
Allee: “I think this boy had the right idea, I’m now looking through one of these telescopes
the army corps of engineers set up for us. And I can see this eagle perfectly. The ice is
bobbing up and down, and he’s going with it. He’s staring out on the water, steely-eyed. It’s
a nice image.”
For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.