A Fowl Day

Look what I found today. A young female bald eagle. I was wandering down the Pike Island Trail on the Mississippi River side and looked up and spotted the eagle sitting on a branch. I grabbed a few shots from behind then quietly made my way to the river bank and walked right up to her. She watched me closely but seemed a little more interested in the river. I snapped a bunch of photos hoping it would fly off to get a fish or something. This bird was HUGE! You do not realize it until you are right there upon them. It must have been 3 foot tall.

I stood there for about 10 minutes photographing the bird, waiting for it to make a move. It suddenly pushed off from the branch and swooped toward me. It scared me shitless and I quickly dropped to one knee hoping she wasn’t after me. Then she banked sharply toward the river and was gone. And did I get that wonderful shot? No! My camera battery died and I was in the process of changing it out when she decided to spread her wings.

I called my sister who worked at that state park (Fort Snelling) and related my experience. She laughed and said it was probably a hawk. Cheryl said that there were a couple of young eagles about 10 miles down the river, but I was too close to the city to see bald eagles. Later that day, I wandered into the visitor center for the park where everyone had heard the story and was having a good laugh about my “adventure”. I showed them the photos and they suddenly were asking me a lot of questions like where, when, descriptions. Then several rangers headed out with GPS and cameras to search out the young eagle.

My sister has called me twice tonight asking for copies of the series of shots. She explained that they were able to spot is again, but couldn’t get close enough to see if it is one of the young eagles from down river. They seem to be excited that they have a bald eagle visiting their park.

Well, I have new photos from my visit to Fort Snelling State Park. I am hoping they will be as interested in them as they seem to be with my eagle photos.