Bald Eagles Galore!

            Today I saw something I’ve never seen before in my life, and never expected to see—a large “flock” of migrating bald eagles.    At this time of the year, in the upper Mississippi valley region, it is normal to see bald eagles migrating northward along the Mississippi and its tributaries.  But I’ve never seen a large flock of them.  I was not aware that they ever traveled in flocks.

            But today, at about noon, while driving along a stretch of I-380 near the Cedar River, between Gilbertville, Iowa and Evansdale, Iowa, I looked up and saw a flock of large, dark- colored birds--at least 50 and perhaps 100 of them.  They were at about 300 ft, and were circling in a pattern where the whole flock slowly circles as a group, much as pelicans do when migrating.  I recognized immediately that each individual bird had the unmistakable silhouette of an eagle, yet I refused to believe that these were eagles, because I’ve never seen them behave that way. As far as I know, we now have 4 nesting pair in the Gilbertville area, but that would only account for the first 8 of them.   If you were to stake out a particularly good eagle watching post at this time of year along the Mississippi, perhaps between Dubuque and Lacrosse, you might easily sight a total of a fifty birds in the course of a day.  But you would not see a “flock” of fifty birds. Eagles don’t travel in flocks—at least they didn’t until now.

            As I watched the circling hoard, the sun angle caught them such that I was sure I saw a white area on the head and tail of each bird.  Just then, two birds peeled off from the flock and swooped down right in front of my car.  It was two of the biggest, most beautiful bald eagles I’ve ever seen.  I think they were pursuing some pigeons that had just flown across the road a little earlier, but since I was driving in traffic, I lost contact. I did not see if they actually got any pigeons.

            Perhaps flocking is a completely normal behavior for the species, but few people of my generation or even my father’s generation ever witnessed it because their numbers were so depleted that there was never a sufficient concentration anywhere to form a flock.  When I was a child, I never saw an eagle.  And as recently as 20 years ago, seeing one eagle was a rare treat, to be experienced once or twice a year.   In the past several years we have had a few nesting pair and we watch them year round.  But today I saw a flock, and it was beautiful!