Eagle Watching

We took a drive recently to do some eagle watching along the Mississippi River.  It was cold and windy out and I suspected we might see quite a few eagles as we usually do in mid January.  I planned and packed a ‘car picnic’ to make it more of an event and give us something to do beside looking through the binoculars. It was too cold to get out of the car and take a walk so I knew we would be car bound for the afternoon.

These mid January rides always turn up more than ‘just’ eagles. We normally get to see flocks of swans and flocks of pelicans and snow geese. I especially love the pelicans. When they fly they have a tight formation and because of their coloring, they sometimes flash white and sometimes totally disappear. Magical. But, when they land on a pond covered with ice, they look like clowns. Their big feet are clumsy on the ice and they stagger and fall over quite a bit. Comical.

And the swans. Who knew there were huge flocks of hundreds of swans migrating to southern Missouri each year? I was knocked over the first time I saw them. Thought it was a mis-sighting. Very beautiful–breath taking.

This trip however did not grant us even a sighting of one eagle. The weather has been too mild so far and they have not migrated this far south yet. I am guessing with a week of cold weather, they will make it into our area. Still, all in all, it was a very nice picnic.