National symbol

Not much explanation needed.

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Missed a good one last week. Big Bald Eagle sitting on a giant pile of cow crap. Woulda let the Meme’s fly.

Saw several while fishing in Shawano WI. Makes you proud to be an American.

My wife and I were fishing near Winnie a couple of weeks ago and while anchored for panfish a bald eagle was hanging out about 50 yards away and just stayed there for awhile.

We were discussing how it’s kind of special because people our age (mid-30’s) grew up with school educating us on eagles and explaining how rare and endangered they were. So people our age have understood them as a rarity our whole lives, so to this day it’s still cool to see one anytime, anywhere.

If anyone hasn’t driven some stretch of Highway 61 from Red Wing to Wabasha (approximately) I highly encourage it, you’ll see plenty of eagles and each season creates a natural beauty for its own reason (fall colors, eagles perched on ice sheets, etc.)

Just back from Ely area. Lots of Eagles there. Beautiful creatures.

If only our politicians, both sides would stop and look at that photo. Maybe they would stop their bickering.

Looks delicious.

Just think in the 60,s there were dang few left!

Bryson De Flambeau wrote:

If you all are anything like me, every time I see an eagle I shed a tear, urine my pants, and forget where I was for the last 15 seconds! God bless America!

Good thing there wasn’t anyone around to pull your finger.

I see more of them in this area of the Mississippi river and inland on the Wisconsin side than turkeys, pheasants and grouse combined.

Ya cool, but well established here.

They are an example of what protection & conservation can do.

riverruns wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bryson De Flambeau wrote:</div>
If you all are anything like me, every time I see an eagle I shed a tear, urine my pants, and forget where I was for the last 15 seconds! God bless America!

Good thing there wasn’t anyone around to pull your finger.

I see more of them in this area of the Mississippi river and inland on the Wisconsin side than turkeys, pheasants and grouse combined.

Ya cool, but well established here.

more eagles than emojis ? That is impressive

Not endangered anymore, thankfully. I see them more commonly than loons nowadays while fishing.

Mike m wrote:

more eagles than emojis ? That is impressive

Who’s counting, and why?

I’m sure it’s a wolf thing as well. Folks would welcome them into there area, and other people see them on a regular basis.

I’ll take the eagle sighting over the wolf sighting though.

I live on the miss river also , the eagle population is pretty impressive , something i tend to take for granted .

riverruns wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>michael martine wrote:</div>
more eagles than emojis ? That is impressive

Who’s counting, and why?

I’m sure it’s a wolf thing as well. Folks would welcome them into there area, and other people see them on a regular basis.

I’ll take the eagle sighting over the wolf sighting though.

Wolf & Eagle photos were taken less then a mile apart.

Last spring I was fishing off the dock for bluegill. Catch and release only as I had to head back home and didn’t want to clean fish. I hooked one pretty deep and didn’t know if he would make it but when I put him in the water he swam off fine. 15 minutes later he was floating about 20 yards out. The wind was slightly blowing in so I thought I’d wait and get him when he got close enough and give him to my neighbor on the way out to put in his garden or whatever.

He got within about 10 feet of the dock. I turned my back to grab the net off the pontoon when I hear this big splash. I turned around and it was a big eagle swooped down to get that gill. He was actually on the water with his wings spread and then flapped his wings to get airborne again. That eagle looked enormous from 10 feet away with that wing spread on the water. One of the coolest things I have ever seen.

To all that love eagles. Do yourself a favor and never ask a cattle or sheep rancher what they think of em.

Never would any more then they would ask me.

In the 1950s there were only 412 nesting pairs in the 48 states.
Now they are as thick as blackbirds.

It seems to be a bird that a person never tires looking at. Although I will admit it’s easy to take them for granted. The folks I talk to around here wonder why anyone would pay someone to take them on a guided tour looking for eagles. Normally the folks I take out generally aren’t from the area and mostly photographers but also there’s people that just like bird watching.

I’ve had two trips where an eagle grabbed a fish in the water but the fish was too heavy to fly with and “swam” to shore. Something we don’t see too often. BTW I was told by someone that once in the water an eagle can’t take off until it gets to lake…I’m here to say that’s false. They might not take off until they release the fish they have in their talons but it doesn’t have anything to do with them being in the water.

I have nests marked on my gps and in the spring it’s frequent we see the heads of the young peeking out over the sides. Ugly little guys but yet pretty cool.

A couple springs ago, Deb Harvey captured 24 eagles in one tree.

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If anyone wants to see eagles.
Go to pool 4 when the air temperature is below 0.
The Lock will have HUNDREDS!!
Thicker than blackbirds in the trees.

Very cool sight to see!

The warmest water in pool 4 happens to be in the lock. When temps plummet eagles flock from miles around to feast on the dying shad (shad cannot tolerate big swings in temps). The day i saw that it was -5 with a 20 mph wind – the coldest day i’ve ever been in a boat. Main channel was a solid sheet of moving ice until about 10am when the sun cooked it off. All my days on the river, i would venture to say you’ll never see more in one spot than a day like that.

On the banks of the Kenai during the salmon run they look like sea gulls lining the banks.

A true eagle / urine your pants story: on a camping trip I threw a ball out in the lake for my Lab to go fetch. He’s halfway out in the lake when a bald eagle pins the wings back and start diving on him. Scared me to death. Right when the eagle got over the top of Jake the air brakes went on and the talons came out. Luckily, the eagle then realized that Jake was bigger than originally thought. It circled to make another run at him but I started throwing rocks at the eagle and distracted his attention enough to get it to pull off. In the top 5 for the most rubber legged that I have ever been.

I was fishing on Kab near a rock island a few years ago. The gulls were nesting on the island. An eagle swooped in trying to get a meal and the gulls launched a counterattack. They eventually succeeded in knocking the eagle into the water. The eagle did the breast stroke all the way to shore and stood there a while to dry off before flying up into a tree.

I watch a nest of peregrines f with eagles all spring in hastings.
Eagles get picked on a lot by faster little birds- crows especially. Can be quite comical to watch the little birds quickly wear out the Turkey sized eagle!

Usually 3 claws out barrel rolls the eagle is tired, most I’ve seen consequently was 5 rolls.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

consequently

Consecutively.

Loons will also give eagles one hell of a battle on the water when a eagle tries to swoop in for one of their young. The loons will actually try to get the eagle on the water and push it under to drown it. My neighbor at the lake says he witnessed this some years ago says the battle went on for ten minutes until it ended in a draw.

Eagles have become far too common up here at Mille Lacs.

I cannot step outside without seeing one or three.

This is problematic.

Am I the only one who’s recognized the decline in the Mille Lacs walleye population has coincided with the rise in the eagle population?

I’m convinced that all these eagles are eating all the walleyes out of the lake.

I would know this because a couple weeks ago I saw an eagle fly right off my deck carrying a walleye.

Next time you harvest an eagle to make your tribal headdress cut open his belly and count the walleye parts.

I have now officially left this conversation.

Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:

I’m convinced that all these eagles are eating all the walleyes out of the lake.

Deep Diving Eagles!!

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

If anyone wants to see eagles.
Go to pool 4 when the air temperature is below 0.
The Lock will have HUNDREDS!!
Thicker than blackbirds in the trees.

Very cool sight to see!

The warmest water in pool 4 happens to be in the lock. When temps plummet eagles flock from miles around to feast on the dying shad (shad cannot tolerate big swings in temps). The day i saw that it was -5 with a 20 mph wind – the coldest day i’ve ever been in a boat. Main channel was a solid sheet of moving ice until about 10am when the sun cooked it off. All my days on the river, i would venture to say you’ll never see more in one spot than a day like that.

There is a power plant in Bloomington along the Minnesota like this. In the cold it’s open water and the eagles are all over. I run in the Minnesota river bottoms in the winter and the first time I saw it I rounded the bend and there were about 30 sitting in a group of trees. Very cool to see considering the location.