Eighteen Eagles Along River Beach Drive

 

 

 

 

Scott and I found 18 Bald Eagles, 2 of which were juvenile or immature, along a 3.8 mile stretch of River Beach Drive that runs from South Rome to Chillicothe, IL. We also encountered hundreds of Common Mergansers, Common Goldeneyes, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, and Hooded Mergansers, as well as gulls, gulls, and gulls.

 

 

Eagles hiding in the tangled branches. I never find them in the lovely open branced sycamore trees; they seem to prefer the darker, tangled branches.

 

 

 

A pair of Bald Eagles resting along the Illinois River.

 

 

Adult Bald Eagle, one of the eighteen we counted on our drive.

 

Immature Bald Eagle. One of two immatures out of the 18 eagles we spotted on our drive up River Beach Drive.

 

 

Carolina Wren singing away in a vacant lot on River Beach Drive.

Waterfowl on the Illinois River

 

 

 

Hooded Mergansers in the cove at Hamm's Marina. We found Lesser Scaup, Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser, and Hooded Merganser waterfowl on our Eagle hunt along River Beach Drive yesterday morning.

 

 

Lesser Scaup.

 

 

 

Common Mergansers.

 

 

 

Common Mergansers taking off.

Cooper Park and Spindler Marina

 

 

Spindler Marina is flooded. The water comes up on both sides of the jetty.

 

 

 

A Ring-billed Gull yelling at me. What kind of gull is the smaller one?

 

 

Ring-billed and Heron Gulls swarming over the frozen marina. Small dead fish were all over the ice and the birds were feasting.

 

 

Canada Geese and Mallard Ducks fly over.

 

 

 

A flock of Canada Geese gather at the flooded campground at Spindler Marina,on the north side of Cooper Park.