FEATHERED ELEGANCE

     I was happy to see many each of large, elegant bald eagles, tundra swans and Canada geese wintering on the Mississippi River and adjoining Lake Onalaska from mid-November until today, December 1, 2023.  I watched groups of the three species standing and sitting on recently frozen ice, and many of the swans and geese floating on water not yet frozen.  Several of the majestic eagles stood on gravelly, grass-tufted flats, or perched on tall trees by the river.  I did all that through live cameras and our home computer screen.
     I saw some of those wintering birds of each kind in magnificent flight over the bleak, but beautiful, river and lake.  They make time spent watching them, even on a computer screen, enjoyable and inspiring.  The eagles are always majestic when soaring swiftly across the sky.  And the loudly calling and honking swans and geese, in their elegant, airborne lines and V-formations, are always thrilling to experience, no matter how many times I do.  
     Many of the bald eagles along the Mississippi are immature, demonstrating the species' recent nesting success in North America.  I once counted over sixty bald eagles, adults and immatures, standing on one patch of ice, but I knew there were many more nearby.  I have seen some of these handsome eagles dining on fish, coots and a duck they caught or scavenged.  And I often see these eagles fighting over food. 
     Once I saw about ten ducks trapped in open water, surrounded by ice.  They probably were diving ducks that need to run over water a few seconds before taking flight because these ducks didn't seem interested in flying off the water.  Meanwhile, several bald eagles gathered around those ducks and some of them took turns trying to drag one or more of them out of the water to kill and consume them, without success while I watched them. 
     The next day, I saw a group of bald eagles attacking a possibly injured Canada goose that was standing on the ice.  But all those eagles dispersed at dusk without killing that goose to feed on it.    
     Flocks of wintering tundra swans and Canada geese are always majestic on land, water and ice, and most particularly in the air.  These large, elegant birds rest on water and ice, but do much of their feeding in harvested corn fields, where they scoop up corn kernels with their shovel-like beaks. 
     Flocks of these beautiful swans and geese are seldom quiet.  Rather, they are exciting and inspiring to hear calling from wherever they are, which also gives away their presence.  Both these magnificent waterfowl species represent the wild on larger bodies of water through the cold bleakness of winter.
     These three wonderful species of birds winter across much of the United States, including parts of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, for example.  And all these birds are truly worth watching for and enjoying wherever they are, and no matter what they are doing.   

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