Red Wing Nature Notes

Since returning home a month AWOL from Red Wing Nature Notes, I have received numerous questions regarding the lack of eagles at Colvill Park this winter.  I also observed low numbers of eagle in both December and January at Colvill.  My theory is that as the eagles were migrating south the first part of December, conditions weren’t to their liking at this perennial winter feeding ground.  Either there was too much ice cover on the bay or the gizzard shad hadn’t moved in from the river yet.  At any rate, most eagles blew right past Red Wing to the next downriver open water feeding opportunity at the lower end of Lake Pepin.  They must have found this area to their liking because these birds have stayed there all winter.  Weekly eagle counts provided to the National Eagle Center supports this observation with the following numbers from last week.

Reads Landing 99

Wabasha 125

Alma 47

In addition a population of around 25 trumpeter swans have spent the winter in the open water at Reads Landing.

Red Wing Eagle Watch weekends have been very well attended with counts around a dozen birds.  This past weekend that count included two pairs of eagles.  One pair was observed adding sticks to their nest directly across from the Colvill viewing area.  Every spring pairs of eagles add to their nests as a part of the courtship ritual.  As I was setting up the spotting scopes an eagle was perched on a large limb just above the nest.  A few minutes later, it’s mate landed just two feet away.

As approximately 30 eagle watch visitors were observing the action with cameras and binoculars, the newly arriving eagle mounted it’s mate and began copulation.  Needless to say, this performance was the topic of conversation for the next few minutes.  Egg laying should take place in a couple days.

Early this morning, I put on my cross country skis to travel up on Wacouta bay and check on the two nearby eagle nests.  One nest had activity nearby while the second nest showed no sign of eagles yet.  As I skied along the river, I approached the area where the beaver lodge that was featured in an earlier post was located. 

As I mentioned in that post, I was concerned that the beaver had built their feed pile in very shallow water last fall.  This left them vulnerable to having ice block off access to their winter food supply. 

Sure enough, there was evidence where they had to chew through the ice to free themselves from impending starvation.  In fact,, there were fresh chewings on top off their lodge as well as several fresh trails leading into nearby willow thickets.  The highlight of my morning ski tour was having six trumpeter swans fly by no more than 150 feet away.  Flying upstream, their low pitched gentle nasal honking echoed through the valley as they passed by me.  It was definitely a morning to remember!

 On a concluding note, eagle watchers be patient.  The northward migration is about to commence.  Within a week to ten days, I believe hundreds of eagles will be visible from numerous locations along the Red Wing riverfront