The Eagles Are Back!! Gary’s Blog 12-11-09
gengberg December 11th, 2009
The first big snowfall of the year left about 15 inches of the stuff at my river home. I’m lucky enough to have land with mature trees which prevented the strong winds from drifting the snow. It was tough enough to dig out from the storm before being hit with the Artic blast which plunged temperatures below zero. Today, the high temperature was in the single digits.
I took Katie out this morning just before sunrise on the Wisconsin River and it was another of those “special” mornings with a fog rising from the River as it snaked its way westward toward the Mississippi . The air temperature was minus 8 degrees and the wind had subsided considerably from the 30 mile per hour blasts of yesterday. 
The warmer water and the cold air are the reason for the fog as the sun started peeking out from the east.
The resident Canadian Geese were flying up and down the Wisconsin as they prepared to fly out and try to find a field open enough to allow them to find some waste corn or grain. 
The geese will stay around as long as they have food. When food is scarce, they move farther south into Illinois and farther.
The normal “jam-session” was going on at my feeders as every Wisconsin winter bird you can think of was filling themselves with black oil sunflower seeds.
I find that most if at all birds like the seeds and there is little waste as you find in cheaper commercial seeds mixtures. This is the time wild birds need some help in feeding a good food and putting out some suet. Cold weather is tough on these hardy residents and the snow compounds the problem. But, once you start feeding birds KEEP doing it because they will depend on you. I know I’ve said this before but it’s true! Ace Hardware in Sauk City, Wisconsin has a great deal on black oil sunflower seeds at $15.99 / 50 pounds.
The sunrise was magnificent and after taking a few photos, I went inside to have some coffee and lay around watching Fox News before I check the day’s emails. My room looks out on the River and also to the east. I can look out and see the river flow by with it’s ice flows which is early for that to start happening. A few crows are standing on the ice as flows westward. Crows…. Suddenly, a shadow is cast across the backyard and its an eagle soaring above the trees and above my shoreline.
Then, I see another eagle close by and more eagles across the River on the Sauk County side of the Wisconsin. I spent a next 15 minutes watching this year’s first major concentration of eagles in my area of the Wisconsin River Valley. I regularly see these raptors, but I never get tired of seeing them fly, soar, and glide across the countryside covered with winter’s first covering. A mature eagle soon landed in a “roost” tree in the yard which overlooked the waters edge. It was looking for a fish to swoop down at and grab for the first meal of the day. It didn’t take long for the eagle to grap a fish and return to the tree to consume it’s breakfast.
I tried to sneak around the house with my camera, but was busted twice and didn’t get a shot. I have to get out my white “camos,’ so I can get some fresh photos. I wasn’t ready for the eagles, but I will be Saturday or Sunday. I’ll see eagles most of the winter now that there is snow on the ground and there main food source in winter is fish. There is a lack of gizzard shad in the River from a huge die-off last year and the year before. It will be interesting to see if this affects the number of eagles that stay in the area all winter. Last Sunday, the Ferry Bluff Eagle Council counted 58 eagles at the 10 roost sites that they monitor. Most were down-river near Lone Rock, but the snow and cold has moved them up-river toward the Prairie du Sac Dam. Today, in my local travels I saw eagles everywhere!! 
They were up and down the River and many were roosting aand feeding at Eagle Island and along most of the river water’s below the Dam. If you want to see some eagles close-up NOW is the time to drive up to Sauk City and see the birds. Come now when they are just coming into this area and before they get shy from visitors.
Contact me or the Sauk-Prairie Chamber of Commerce for good spots for viewing and eagle information. Stop by the Wilderneess Fish and Game store in Sauk City for the best binoculars money can buy, Vortex Optics. I got a pair this year and they are amazing.
It’s EAGLE TIME!!
