I can’t let my annual review go by without showing you a photo of a Bald Eagle. These magnificent raptors are here in Iowa all year long, but during the winter, when the Mississippi is frozen, they come down from Minnesota and Canada in big numbers.
I didn’t even have to browse through my archive and look for photos that were made earlier this year during the last winter. These two images are from today. The weather conditions, and more important the light, were just right for going after the eagles today. I counted about twenty birds at the lock and dam #11 in Dubuque. Twenty five miles south in Bellevue, at lock #12, I found the same situation. I enjoyed watching the Bald Eagles and of course, I wasn’t the only one who tried to make a photo of these wonderful birds.
This eagle is about to become an adult. It takes four years before they loose the white mottling on their feathers and develop the pure white neck and tail.