Thanks for the postcards, eagles – we love to get airmail from D36 and D27! When last we shared their travels, D36 was wandering East Central Minnesota and D27 had returned to Decorah. At the time, D36 was closer to my house than I was! But he shifted his range on the very day I went to look for him. How do they know I’m coming to find them? At any rate, D36 is currently vacationing in the Wanamingo, Minnesota area, while D27 is spending time near Spillville, Iowa along the Little Turkey River: an excellent choice in my opinion! While I would visit the Bily Clocks Museum, D27 appears to be making a tour of the river bluffs and uplands. Although she’s tended to stay close to home during the winter, she would end up about six miles south of Eagle Valley if she followed the Turkey SSE to its meeting with the Mississippi River.
I thought it would be fun to take a look at what each eagle might see two miles up in the air. Both eagles are within sight of the Mississippi River. D36 can see Lake Pepin – a very popular spot for migrating and wintering eagles – while D27 can just see it as a thin line on the horizon. Where will they go next? This year has been a bit of an outlier, but if they follow last year’s pattern, both of them will probably spend Thanksgiving in the Decorah area. I hope we get a chance to see them!
Thanks for the postcards, eagles. Fly high and don’t forget to write! As always, a thousand thanks to Brett Mandernack and the staff of Eagle Valley for sharing the data, maps, and expertise. To see the travels of any of the eagles we’ve tracked, please visit our interactive maps: https://www.raptorresource.org/learning-tools/eagle-map/.
The Raptor Resource Project