winter birding in Illinois and Iowa

Here are a few photos from my trip to Illinois and Iowa - this is the view of the Iowa side looking across the Mississippi from Illinois. Bald eagles everywhere, wintering here where the river is not quite frozen so they can fish.

Here is a bald eagle nest.

If you look carefully you will see a bald eagle in the nest, keeping eggs warm in this 20 degree weather!
The downy woodpecker was managing to find food in this tree.

I was VERY excited to get this photo of a Horned Lark in the pasture .

Don't know what the house finch is eating!

This is the Black Capped chickadee, slightly bigger than the Carolina chickadees we have in the south.

These were a surprise! Eurasian Tree Sparrows are found only in Illinois, after being introduced there in the 1800's.

The Canadian geese are hated by the locals, devouring everything in sight and making quite a mess.

I sure would not want to live right on the banks of the Mississippi, beautiful though it is.

The Common Merganser looks very tiny next to the geese!

The male turkey is on the left (see the beard?).

The large birds along the shore are Trumpeter Swans!

I guess Lesser Black-backed gulls like to ice skate.

YEOOW that water is cold!!

Much of the river here was frozen. This flock took off suddenly, and then we noticed a bald eagle flying - they were careful to stay out of its way.


Fearsome 80" wingspan!

Over on the Iowa side we were able to get much closer to the eagles.

Absolutely magnificent!

WOW!

There really is a Great Horned Owl hiding up in the tree.

A redhead duck with 2 lesser scaups in the harbor behind Soldier Field in downtown Chicago.





I actually rode this ferris wheel one winter when the temperature was 4 F. and windy... Funny, no one else but my family was riding it... but we had a great time! It runs 24/7.

A beautiful but windy city!!

Sure enjoyed my walk along the lakefront... here is one last pair of Common Goldeneyes (the male has the black head).

I was getting nearly seasick trying to time the waves and the 1 second delay before the camera would take the picture, major timing problem here ;) . The duck didn't seem to mind the waves.

We were searching for a rare duck that was reported here but could not find it.

The top male is doing some "nod swimming" to show off a bit for his friends...

Beautiful, aren't they!!




Watch the videos below for some flying eagles!

The poor crow was trying to keep the eagle OUT of his nesting grounds.

What a great trip!!! (Even though it was so cold I made a fleece jacket FOR MY CAMERA).