Wild Bird Wednesday

If you saw my "Our World Tuesday" post you will already know that my friend and I went to the Fox River Dam in Elgin looking for open water ... a place where eagles congregate in the winter.  

We found more ducks than eagles ... some migrating ducks which surprised us.  It seems early for the migrations to start.

It also surprised us that the ducks were swimming and diving in the frigid waters of the river ...

This duck has to be a hybrid of some sort ... looks like Mallard, maybe Gadwall with the brown body of the male Gadwall and the green head of the Mallard male and then a white chest.  I would have loved to have seen his siblings :)

Speaking of Gadwall, here is a female :)

And then a female Mallard with the field mark wing band ...

On the shore a single Canadian goose huddled up to stay warm ... 

Then there it was ... the first sign that the eagles were in fact here ...

We headed up the river walk (which was covered with deep snow and untraveled) toward where we thought the Eagle landed ... On our way we passed this large migratory group of Golden Eyes ...

And then, there he/she was ... sitting proudly, as Eagles do, high up in the tree ...

What a beauty ...

As soon as he saw us plodding toward him, he took flight ...

I love the Eagles, so beautiful and strong ... who would ever guess that they are scavengers and they cackle like a chicken :)

On our way back, we spotted a male Common Merganser ... another migratory bird ... 

And another male Goldeneye ...

Finally Mr. Mallard waved goodbye as we crossed the bridge to go back to our car ...

After being housebound, so to speak, all through this long cold winter, this was a real treat.  I loved seeing the eagle even though there was only one.  Interestingly,  An adult eagle showed up in the tree in my front yard the next day, as if to say, "You really didn't have to go that far just to see an Eagle" ... sadly my flock of ornery crows drove him off before I could get to my camera.  I am hoping it is my juvenile who I have been watching for the past four years as he slowly acquired his full adult coloring.  I watched in awe as that wonderful wing span flew off across the lake.  Now that I know they are back, I will be looking for them with camera in hand.