While you might not be fortunate to spot them ourselves, there could be eagles living right in your own backyard – literally.
“In all my life long travels I never saw a bald eagle other than in a zoo until now when this special visitor came and sat in the tree right across my backyard,” said Joan Krecioch, who spotted a bald eagle sitting in a tree in her Sun City yard.
Other residents have only hoped to be so lucky.
Bald eagles photographed in Sun City trees. (Photo provided)
Diane Flanagan, Sun City Resident, said, “My husband and I would travel to Dubuque Iowa every year to see the eagles.”
One of the places to spot these sought-after eagles is near open water during winter months. The waterway provides them with the opportunity to feed on fish. The 16 locks and dams along the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers provide opportunities to see the eagles in flight. The lock personnel take counts of the birds every week.
Flanagan said, “I was playing cards with my neighbor Joan Krecioch and she told me about this eagle in her yard and how you could see them over the lake.”
Illinois hosts more than 3,100 bald eagles for their winter getaway. There are more American bald eagles in Illinois in their natural habitat during the winter than any other state other than Alaska. The visiting eagles are usually spotted in Illinois around December and they remain here until they move back north in March. January and February are the best time to see these Magnificent American Bald Eagles.
Flanagan loves to sit in her chair in her bedroom and gaze out into her yard and watch the visitors to her birdfeeder.
“I started looking all over for the eagle. And then I was driving down Main Street and right around Hemmer at the stoplight, I looked up through my sunroof and saw the eagle fly over. It was so exciting,” she said.
Eagles are fun to watch. Their 6-foot wingspan and those talons with the shredding beak are a sight to be seen. Everything about them is larger than life, right down to their nests, which are big and sturdy.
Flanagan said, “I now find there are two of them and they are usually by Huntley High School, in the football stand, watching the kids when classes let out. So, I have named the pair, Raider and Mrs. Raider, after the Huntley High School mascot.”
As eagle populations have increased, it’s no longer uncommon to spot a bald eagle. But that’s only increased the number of residents who want to do so. In the evening, the wintering eagles can be found congregating at communal roost trees, in some cases traveling 30 miles or more from feeding areas to a roosting tree. The same roost trees are usually used each year.
They are in locations that are protected from the wind by vegetation.
