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Eagle Eyed Dork

© Sharon Wren

Normally I hate this time of year. Face it, February in the Midwest is pretty bad - snowy, cold, yukky. Even though my birthday is the first part of the month, I still don't like it. As far as I'm normally concerned, we could go from New Year's Day to the first day of spring. Or at least to the first spring training baseball game. In this part of the country along the Mississippi River, the bald eagles come to town about this time of year. Even though I've spent my whole life around here, I'd never seen one live. Sure, I'd seen them on TV; who hasn'? That was before we moved to the island.

One morning last February, I looked out the big window in the living room to see who was out there; usually it's a few geese and ducks, fresh from a handout from Mrs. Kelly down the road. However, there were a couple new birds down there, big ones. I dug out the binoculars and had a look. They were bald eagles! They were just hanging out down by the river, like two guys hovering over the water cooler at work, discussing the latest happenings on "Survivor". I was a total geek; I was almost late for work because I couldn't stop staring at them.

Then, of course, I turned into the wildlife version of Martha Stewart. I had new visitors, I must feed them! But what? I was pretty sure they didn't eat birdseed. Since I was running late for work, I didn't have time to Ask Jeeves, so I asked somebody at work. She gave me that "you poor, deranged goofball" look and told me that they eat fish. Since I'm as good at fishing as I am at neurosurgery, I decided to let them fend for themselves. They seem to be thriving, in spite of my inability to be a proper hostess. In fact, they were recently taken off the endangered species list! Come to think of it, I don't think it'd be a good idea to feed them. If I wanted to throw fish at birds, I'd get a job at Sea World.

Some people wonder how to tell if a bird is bald eagle. Trust me, if you're in the right place, it's a cinch even without binoculars. Size is a good tip-off. You have your average sized birds, like chickadees and wrens. Then there are the geese and ducks, which are pretty easy to spot. If you see a big, dark bird with that telltale white head, you've got an eagle. They like to congregate near open water and by that I mean a river/ lake/whatever that isn't frozen over. It's not like they can go home, open the freezer and get out the Mrs. Paul's fish sticks if the river is frozen over.

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