Mississippi Corridor Neighborhood Coalition

Eagles In The Corridor

Sep 11, 1998

A big bird flew about 20 feet over my head and caught my eye one day last fall. Its wing tips were pitched upwards, ever so slightly. It was a Golden Eagle. Because of the distraction, I nearly side- swiped a fellow traveler as we both drove over a bridge crossing the Mississippi. Bird watching is best done from safer places than the freeway.
Though rare, the Golden Eagle follows the river corridor through our cities. Watching for the flight of a Bald Eagle, the passage of migrating Mallards, the regular coming and going of Goldeneyes in the winter; all are possible within the corridor of the Mississippi.
The Mississippi is known as a flyway corridor, a vast continental highway for the passage of waterfowl. Other birds follow the corridor in migration as well. The relatively undisturbed habitat along its shores, even in the city, provides refuges. The river provides an easily followed pathway, food, and of course water.
In the winter, our Mississippi is the home for some birds that spend the winter here. Several kinds of diving ducks spend the winter where there is open water. Goldeneyes, Mergansers, and Mallards are the most common of over wintering ducks. They roost over night on the Mississippi and leave at dawn for other feeding spots. The Broadway Street bridge is a traditional spot for bird watchers to find these birds in the winter.
Eagles and Turkey Vultures are now often seen riding the air currents over the river and the adjacent bluffs. The size of the Golden Eagle is remarkable. Its habit of flying with its wings pitched ever so slightly above horizontal is distinctive. Its somewhat smaller cousin, the Bald Eagle, coasts and soars with both wings ruler-flat. The Turkey Vulture soars for miles without ever a wing beat. It holds its wings at a dihedral, a small distinctive angle to one another. Watch for the shape of these soaring birds. Identify them from up close and you will soon be able to identify their shape when they are a long distance away.
A few years ago these sights were less common. Bald Eagles now nest through the Mississippi corridor as far south as Illinois. About 25 years ago Bald Eagles only nested in Minnesota in the big national forests in the North. As water quality in the Mississippi improved, more diving ducks can find good places to winter, even in the middle of Minneapolis.
(Ed. Note: Sherry Isakson of Lind-Bohanon recently spotted an eagle above the Mississippi River near the 694 freeway overpass in Fridley. Can we start an "eagle watch" in the upper corridor?)