Skip to main content

Searching for Eagles

This past weekend, we went out searching for eagles.

Oddly enough, Alton, IL is one of the best areas in the country to spot American Bald Eagles as they migrate.

If I were any sort of bird, and I could fly anywhere I wanted, Illinois would not be where I headed - just saying.  But I'm glad they do, because we are here and we got to see them!

Our first stop was the Treehouse Wildlife Center in Dow, IL.  This center rescues and rehabilitates wild animals.  Those that can not be rehabilitated enough to be released back in to the wild are given a home for life.

And it's free.  We gave a donation, but there is no cost for stopping by and seeing the animals if you need a cheap date.

We got to meet a woodpecker who was rat-a-tat-tatting away on the wood in his cage.

Snakes.  I don't remember what type these were.  If Kerry were here, I could ask him.  He would totally know.  All snakes are just 'snakes' to me but that man of mine treats them like his old college buddies.  He loves snakes and knows them all by name.  Whenever we get to the reptile house at any zoo, that's when the kids and I know we will get to sit and rest for a while because Kerry is going to take his time and we will be there a looooooong while.

An up close personal view of a turkey buzzard which has to be one of the homeliest creatures I've ever seen.  It's nostrils form a hole all the way through the top of its beak. He glared at us a lot and I think he thought my nose looked weird too.

Turtle.  I think it's a red-eared slider.

Get it?

My favorite animals were the eagles of course.  They didn't have any elephants, or that would have been my favorite, as usual.  But I don't usually get to see eagles this close.  They really do look fierce - just like Sam the Eagle on the Muppet Show.

They had a cool door.  I loved the colors.

I may become one of those people who takes pictures of cool doors.

An owl with eyes so black he looked like he eats souls for breakfast.

Luckily it was lunch time while we were there.

Kerry's favorite - a hawk.  We've nearly run smack into many a semi-truck because Kerry was saying, "Look at that hawk!" 

 This is usually echoed by me screeching, "Look at the road!"


Owl

Owl who was pretending to sleep, but was totally peeping at us with one eye.

A coyote with what looked like a serious case of mange.

This fox wasn't saying nothin'!

Afterwards, we stopped by the river in Alton.  The chunks of ice were floating down the river, and eagles were landing on the chunks and floating on them.  It was really cool!

We saw six eagles while we were standing on the banks.  One woman said that she had spotted forty-four the day before.  We probably could have seen a lot more if we had hung around longer, but it was still pretty chilly (as evidenced by all that ice).  The girls and I were chilly anyway.  Kerry thought we were wimps and made friends with some strangers who gave us Red Vines and I let my kids accept candy from strangers.


Found a big eagle on our eagle hunt!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ben's Feet

Ben went camping with his youth group this weekend. He said it was the best weekend he's had since we've been in Hawaii, and possibly in his entire life. The one negative part was that he stepped on some coral out in the water and cut his feet up pretty good. He swears it was all dead coral - you shouldn't touch live coral, much less walk on it because it damages the coral. No one ever mentions that it also damages your feet. They just tell you not to damage the coral. Also, coral is a living organism . If you step on live coral and a tiny piece breaks off in the cut, it will continue to grow. Did you see the movie Alien ? If some creature incubates in Ben's feet, then breaks out and eats us all one night, I'm going to be quite miffed. (Make sure you read the inscription on his tee shirt in this picture. It's quite appropriate.)

Mammogram

I'm having my annual mammogram today. I always hear about how painful they are, but honestly, I've never thought they are that bad. Not the most comfortable, but not painful either. Every time I have a mammogram, I'm reminded of this story. It won the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition and I still get a kick out of it every time I read it. So I'm posting it here today for your reading pleasure: Erma Bombeck Writing Competition 1st place in Humor Category Winner Leigh Anne Jasheway of Eugene, Oregon "The First Time's Always the Worst" The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches on fire. That's what happened to me. The technician, Gail, positioned me exactly as she wanted me (think a really complicated game of Twister - right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right breast as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body). Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my breast actually turned inside o...

Japanese Fishing Shrine

Here's an interesting little spot we stopped to see. I'd passed this many times before and had never stopped to see what it was. Since GG and Sherry were here, we decided to check it out. There is a shrine of some sort with a statue and a carved rock. There was no information on sight as to what it is that I could find. There were flowers, food and incense left around the base of the shrine. There was a ceramic statue and a rock with a figure carved into it. None of the food was old or rotting (although plenty of it had clearly been pecked by birds) and the flowers were all fresh which made me think it must be cleaned and cared for on a regular basis. After we got home, I did some research and found this article about it from the Hawaii Star Bulletin, our local newspaper (I have edited out some bits, but otherwise the article is unchanged): "Maintenance" of the monument has been assumed by a group of Vietnamese Buddhists - Shingon Shu Hawaii, the Buddhist temple th...