The Bald Eagle: The majestic symbol of freedom

adult Bald Eagle

If you haven't heard already, I've been working for Mississippi Explorer Cruises as an Interpretive Naturalist this summer.  It's been a fun job. I get to talk to lots of people and I get to tell them all about the natural and cultural history of the ports we go out of.   I also spent a lot of time scanning the banks looking for wildlife. So far, I've seen just about everything you can see on the river. A few weeks ago, we saw a lone Beaver. A week before that, we saw a pair of River Otters playing on the bank. Deer are plentiful on the islands and are often seen swimming between them.  We even occasionally see fish, either swimming just below the surface or jumping clear of the water.

At the start of our cruises, people often ask what we have a chance of seeing and a lot of people ask about Beaver or Otter, but the number one thing people ask if we're going to see is Eagles.

Now, if you know anything about birding on the Mississippi River, you know that the answer is always yes. We almost always see eagles during our cruises.

In fact, Eagles have rebounded quite well since the pesticide DDT was banned in the 1970s.
In the 1960s, their population hit an all time low and the species was placed on the Federal Endangered Species list. Since then, through a number of acts passed by congress, their population has steadily increased again.  In 2007, their population had increased sufficiently that they were removed from the Endangered Species list.  This year's population estimate for Pool 9 on the Upper Mississippi River at Genoa was 100 pairs.

The Mississippi River has long been one of the strongholds for this species, with its plentiful supply of fish. Although, at their low point, the species almost disappeared from the river valley.

Fortunately, Alaska, the primary stronghold for these birds, due to its remoteness was never very highly assaulted by DDT and they remained there in decent numbers throughout the 1900s.  Today, over half of the world's 9,700 breeding pairs of Bald Eagles lives in Alaska.

Here on the Mississippi River, every winter, we enjoy Bald Eagles in their hundreds that gather around the open water below the dams and at warm water vents.  In many places, you can stand in one spot and count over 200 eagles just by turning in a circle.

Today, Bald Eagles enjoy federal protection in many forms.  They are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act of the 1918, the Bald and Golden Eagle protection act of 1940. They are also protected as our national bird and part of the symbol on our national seal.

Bald Eagles are known as builders of some of the largest nests in the bird world.
One of the largest nests on record measured over 9 ft across and weighed in around two tons. Most nests, however, a much smaller, measuring around 4-6ft across and weighing around half a ton.

They begin the nesting season in January, adding to and "remodeling" the same nest they used in previous years, every year making it a little bigger.  Here in WI, the female lays 2-4 eggs sometime between late Feb and mid March.  The young hatch roughly a month later, and fledge around the 4th of July.  Once they leave the nest, the young are tended by the parents until they are able to fend for themselves, at which point they begin the long process of learning to fish. It's quite amusing to watch a young eagle attempting to fish. They are quite clumsy and sometimes quite pathetic at it.  They learn quickly however and soon become master hunters.  Bald Eagles reach maturity at around 3-5 years old, at which time they gain the diagnostic white head and tail.

Interestingly,  at the time they leave the nest, the grown young are often bigger than their parents. The reason is because of the extra baby fat they still retain and the down feathers that they haven't lost yet.
A recently fledged young Bald Eagle can have as many as 8 or 9000 feathers.  A typical adult has around 7000 feathers.

In 1782, the Bald Eagle was selected as our National Emblem because of it's long life (nearly 30 years), great strength and majestic looks.  Their range covers the entire North America continent from Alaska to Florida, from Canada to Mexico. They are perhaps the single most well known bird in the world, and the one that everyone loves to see.

They are truly a majestic bird, they sit at the top of the food chain and are a symbol of strength and fearlessness.  Hopefully they will be around for many centuries to come.

"May the wind under your wings bear you where the moon walks and the sun sails"
--J.R.R Tolkien

A blue day? Only in one respect

Here's a couple more Dragonfly shots that I forgot to share in my last post.  

The theme today is blue. It's a clear, blue sky outside, so today's dragonflies are blue as well. 

Remember the female Blue Dasher I shared yesterday? This is the male Blue Dasher below: 

Yep, they actually are blue! 

This blue dragon is a male Eastern Pondhawk. They're such a colorful species! The males being bright 

gray-blue and the females are lime green! 

What? You want a bird too? Ok, ok.... 

Here's a "blue bird" I photographed in Ecuador last year.

Kudos if you can ID it... ;) 

Summer Pt 2: The part that actually has the Meadowhawks, Clubtails and Skimmers

Summer is Dragonfly season here in the upper midwest.  Since I've dived into dragonflies this summer, I've found quite a few species and am finding new ones all the time. This past week, I found one dragonfly I've been wanting to see: 

This colorful, highly patterned dragon is called a Halloween Pennant. 

I've been wanting to see this one for a while. They perch on an upright stick with their lower legs just below their upper ones. This makes them look like a pennant hanging from a stick. 

Widow Skimmers are one of the most common dragons out here right now.

Their black and white pattern is unmistakeable. 

This Ruby Meadowhawk posed quite nicely for me. It's always exciting to see a bright red dragonfly. 

Sometimes, the duller ones are cool too. This female Blue Dasher looked right at me just as I hit the shutter. 

And of course, Twelve-spotted Skimmers are spectacular as always. 

I've been trying to photograph every dragonfly I see.  Unfortunately, some of them do get away.  I found a Lancet Clubtail last week that refused to cooperate and a Lance-tipped Darner that kept flying just ahead of the boat.  

Come Sept, the birds will pick up again. I promise! :) 

Summer. Pt 1: Gulls, Cormorants, Ducks, Pennants, Skimmers, Meadowhawks, Baskettails, Clubtails, Skippers, Swallowtails and Admirals

Ok, so yes, I do have a lot to cover. It's been a while since my last post.
I've been working quite a bit lately, pretty much every weekend. That doesn't leave a lot of time for birding. Good thing the birding has been slow lately and most of the Dragonflies are found near the river.

Amazingly, the only really rare bird that has been found all summer is crazy rare, a first state record in fact. Back on the last week of Jun, a Neotropic Cormorant was found at Horicon Marsh.  Like most summer rarities in Wisconsin, it stuck around and has been present for over 3 weeks now.

Horicon is far enough from me that there is no way I can get there at the crack of dawn. Subsequently, I wasn't able to get the morning light on the tree it was sitting it, so I had to make do with the harsh, late morning light that provided lots of shadows:

Here's a slightly better photo that shows the diagnostic "V" at the base of the bill:

I went back a week later and had similar results with the light. This time however, the bird sat right next to a Double-crested Cormorant which gave an excellent chance for side-by-side comparison:

Since I've been working as a naturalist, I've been trying to learn as much as I can about almost every aspect of the Mississippi River. It's been a fun job so far and I've actually learned quite a bit. The best part is working outside, on the river and getting to see the wildlife on a regular basis. We actually see Bald Eagles on almost every cruise. It's nice to see how much of a comeback they've made since DDT was banned.  Since most of the young have fledged, we've been seeing a lot more 1st year birds sitting up, in the open for us to look at: 

On Jul 13th, I grabbed my little ten-year-old birding pal Cicero and we drove over to Sheboygan to look for a Little Gull that had been seen there the previous day.  When we arrived, we found the rocks at North Point occupied by about 300 Bonaparte's Gulls and around 100 Ring-billed Gulls.  While Cicero ran off to photograph the Bonaparte's Gulls (a lifer for him), I set up my scope and set about trying to find the Little Gull. Fortunately, the Little Gull was in 1st summer plumage and most of the Bonaparte's were still in breeding plumage. Even so, it still took about 15 minutes to find the Little Gull. Once I found it though, it became ridiculously easy to re-find, even if I completely lost it in the flock (isn't that the way it goes though?). 

The Bonaparte's Gulls were rather skittish, so I couldn't get very close, but at least the photo is identifiable. This was my 312th WI state bird: 

After watching the Little Gull for a while, I scanned the lake looking for the Franklin's Gull that had also been reported there. I found it floating with a flock of Bonaparte's about 150 yds off the point. I quickly pointed it out to Cicero who quickly picked it out; his 3rd lifer of the day.  

We then headed back to Horicon Marsh where Cicero picked up Black Tern, Forster's Tern and Ruddy Duck. 

All attempts to find the Black-necked Stilts however were foiled by the tall reeds and grass.  

We did however re-find the Neotropic Cormorant and managed to get pretty decent looks at it. 

The main ponds along Hwy 49 at Horicon Marsh were overrun with Pied-billed Grebes: 

While looking for Black-necked Stilts, we found something along those lines, but not quite what we were looking for: 

At least there are plenty of Cranes in the marsh. It's good to see that Sandhill Cranes have made such an excellent comeback as well. 

As you may have noticed with my last post, I have taken a nose-dive into Dragonflies this summer. My latest Dragonfly exploits will be recounted in my next post. 

Happy Birding/Oding/Lepping! :D 

Odonatidae

Common Green Darner

The family Odonatidae or Odonata, commonly called Odes is the family of Dragonflies, Damselflies and Allies.  Yes, I have taken a nose-dive straight into this awesome family of insects.  This is a whole new realm of creatures to ID. Not as much is known about ID of these insects as there is of birds and often, females and immatures cannot be readily identified.  It doesn't help that the only Dragonfly book for Wisconsin is currently out of print and unavailable.  My method of beginning to learn these winged creatures is to photograph everything I see and post it to Facebook. Inevitably, someone knows what the Ode is called. In essence, by doing so, I'm slowly building my own field guide to Dragonflies and Damselflies of southern Wisconsin. Hopefully I will have a pretty decent set of photos by the end of the season.

Here is what I have found and photographed so far that I know the ID to:

Immature female Eastern Forktail

 There are several little orange Damselflies in a family called Bluets. This one is a Forktail. I have yet to figure out why...

Midland Clubtail

  Clubtails are some of the more awesome Dragonflies. There are two species around here that look similar. Midland Clubtail and the more awesomely named Cobra Clubtail.

Midland Clubtails

It's always fun to see a mating pair of Dragonflies attempting to fly. They do it amazingly well.

Female Eastern Forktail

It's interesting how these Damselflies change colors depending on age. This is a female. I haven't found a male yet.

I haven't had a solid ID on this one yet, but it is probably Hagen's Bluet. The blue ones are so vivid!

Some Bluets can't be identified unless they're adults. This little green one is probably an Eastern Forktail, but is what is called Tenereal, meaning that it is newly hatched and still developing and cannot be identified to species.

Twelve-spotted Skimmer

This is perhaps one of my favorite Dragonflies and is one of the more spectacular ones as it really stands out as it flies by.  I usually see these while canoeing along rivers and streams.

Ebony Jewelwing

By far one of the most beautiful of the Damselflies (is it a Damselfly?) Ebony Jewelwing is an inhabitant of the deep forest shadows. They're awesome to see in flight and just glow when they land. I love the beautiful metallic sheen.


Keep checking back for updates throughout the summer. I'm trying to post on this blog more often now that I have lots of new things to share.