Tag: bald eagle

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Silver Lake Wildlife

By Christian Begeman

In mid-March I saw a post on a local birding website that 50-plus bald eagles were observed at Silver Lake, along Highway 81 north of Freeman, so I took the camera and long lens out to see for myself.

I set off after work on Saint Patrick’s Day. The evening sky was heavy with low and fast rain clouds that spit a few drops now and then. As I approached the lake from the north, I discerned many large and dark shapes in the trees that surround the little lake. The eagles were still there.

When I pulled into the roadside park I was surprised and thrilled to see an eagle perched right above the outhouse. A few snaps later he decided he didn’t like the looks of me staring at him from my car window and flew off. Later in the evening as I rounded the east side of the lake on a county road, a red fox suddenly appeared on the ice. My vehicle’s engine must have startled him on his evening hunt. We raced alongside each other for half a mile before I was able to get ahead of him enough to stop and capture a shot of his flight across the ice. Later that evening, I drove to a lone barn a couple miles northwest. The low clouds had parted enough on the horizon to let the setting sun through. A bald eagle photo and a sunset shot all within an hour. It was a good day.

I returned the following Saturday to see if the eagles were still around. Sure enough, I saw about 25 in the trees ringing the lake again. I also encountered a hawk hiding in plain sight in a tree adjacent to the roadside park. The edges of the water had receded and a number of waterfowl were enjoying the open water. I couldn’t get close enough in the broad daylight to get any interesting shots so I decided to get up before the sun on Sunday morning and plant myself behind some tall grass near the water’s edge to get a better view. Bald eagles typically are most active in the early morning, so I was hoping to capture them in action as well.

Sunday morning’s temperature was in the mid-teens. When I arrived at Silver Lake, the shades of color were just starting to change in the east. Cold and bleary eyed, I made my way down to the spot I had picked the day before only to discover the water had refrozen. I relocated as best I could to the new edge of open water and waited. The eagles were already out on the ice and active. I watched a juvenile eagle catch a fish, fly up about 60 feet and then drop it. As he did this, another six or seven eagles flew from their perch to join the fun. Unfortunately for them (and for me) the fish broke through the thin ice and they could not retrieve it again.

Since most of the action took place when it was too dark to shoot, I didn’t get the photos I was looking for, but I did get to practice silhouette shots against an ever-changing colored sky. I also got to hear multiple duck species fly over and in front of me. The sound they made reminded me of bottle rockets whizzing past (don’t ask how I know what that sounds like). It was a glorious morning, and South Dakota at its finest.

Christian Begeman grew up in Isabel and now lives in Sioux Falls. When he’s not working at Midcontinent Communications he is often on the road photographing South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Eagle Season

By Katie Hunhoff

A bald eagle built a nest near the old Meridian Bridge in Yankton two years ago, and then perched on a nearby cottonwood branch and posed for pedestrians, who were at eye level to the big bird when they were on the bridge’s upper deck.

The eagle eventually abandoned that nest. Maybe it was a tad too close to civilization for her comfort. But more eagles than ever are wintering on the open water of the Missouri River in Yankton, and they often glide slowly over the walking bridge that extends into the city’s old downtown.

Eagles were following the Dodo bird to extinction a scant 50 years ago. Illegal hunting, habitat destruction and a poison known as DDT were killing the species. In 1963, only 487 nesting pairs could be found in the United States.

But the Endangered Species Act banned DDT in 1972, and the eagles gradually adapted to a changing prairie landscape. Today, the state Game, Fish & Parks Department estimates that there may be as many as 300 nesting pairs just in South Dakota.

Most South Dakota eagles can be found wintering below the Missouri River dams, where massive old cottonwood trees provide a barky foundation for their large, heavy nests. Open water below the river’s dams provides easy fishing. Eagles also nest in the Black Hills near the Deerfield Reservoir, and it’s not surprising to find them in any part of the state.

Eagles build their nests by mid-February and begin laying eggs in late February. The birds mate for life, and use the same nests from year to year, adding twigs each year. Their nests are among the largest of any North American bird. One big nest measured 13 feet deep by 8 feet wide.

The majestic bald eagle was chosen as our national emblem in 1787, partly because it was native to North America. The fierce appearance of its curved beak, regal white head and piercing eyes were also factors. In the emblem, drawn in 1782, a bald eagle is displayed with an olive branch in one claw and 12 arrows clutched in the other, representing both peace and war.

Benjamin Franklin famously opposed putting the bald eagle on the nation’s emblem. He favored the wild turkey, which he claimed was, “A much more respectable bird and a true native of America.” He said the turkey was a bird of courage that “would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on.”

It seems Franklin was also put off with the bald eagle’s habit of eating carrion. They often steal food from smaller birds by intimidating them into dropping their prey. They also feed on dead fish and crippled birds. “He is a bird of bad moral character,” wrote Franklin. “He does not get his living honestly. You may have seen him perched in some dead tree where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the fishing hawk and, when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish and is bearing it to his nest for his young ones, the bald eagle pursues him and takes the fish.”

It seems unpatriotic to dredge up Franklin’s comments. After all, the eagle is just doing what comes naturally. Go eagle watching this spring and you will instantly be reminded of why our founding fathers chose this regal bird to represent our nation. Your best chance to see some soaring is to visit the Missouri below the dams at Yankton, Pickstown, Fort Thompson and Pierre. In Yankton, a few eagles can often be found in the big trees that lie south of Riverside ballpark.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

It’s Never Too Cold

By Christian Begeman

I’ve never claimed to be the smartest guy in town. I mean, one would have to be a few cards short of a full deck to pick the middle of winter to do a column on birding in South Dakota, right?!? It’s really cold out –nose hair frostsicle and toe-numbing cold. Even if there were birds out in the great wide open this time of year, what kind of numbskull would go out with hopes of photographing them? Well I guess that would be me. Actually I have a few good reasons. Although having these reasons probably doesn’t make me smarter, I think they are good reasons. They are Bald Eagles and Cardinals.

Each winter, our national symbol gathers below our dams on the mighty Missouri near the running water produced by the dam’s releases. This year, my goal was to actually photograph one of these majestic eagles catching a fish. It didn’t happen, but I had fun trying and got a few interesting images along the way.

The first time I ever saw a Bald Eagle in real life was along the Moreau River in Ziebach County back when I was in my early teens. My brothers and I were hurtling down Highway 65 in our green 1972 Pontiac Catalina when we saw something unusual in the far ditch. None of us knew what it was, so we turned around and drove back, only to discover an adult Bald Eagle cleaning the bones of an unlucky deer. Not necessarily a glorious and patriotic sight, but we were pretty excited nonetheless. Eagles were still rare in those days. Bald Eagles are primarily fish and fowl eaters, but will often supplement their diets with road kill or other types of carrion they discover. That is one of the reasons that DDT hurt them so badly in the 1960s.

These great raptors are more numerous nowadays and have become one of my favorite birds to try and photograph. My best shots are usually lucky shots — like on New Year’s Day when I was strolling through Yankton’s Riverside Park. I was intently looking towards the river for eagles and unsuspectingly walked right up to one perched high above me in a tree. Luckily my camera was up and shooting when we both realized how close we were to each other. It didn’t take long for it to lift off and fly to the Nebraska side of the river, but just after take off, it wheeled in my direction for a pretty cool eagle-in-flight shot.

The striking male Northern Cardinal, on the other hand, was simply a bird on my photography bucket list. According to South Dakota birding books, cardinals winter in the southeastern part of the state, so all I had to do was find one. I discovered on a birding website that cardinals had been sighted at Sioux Falls’ Outdoor Campus this winter so I decided to brave the cold and see what I could see. I purposely waited for a day with snow and/or flurries, as I love the contrast between the red of the bird and whites of winter. I found that if you simply go to the benches by the bird feeders and sit very still for 15 minutes or so, the birds take your presence for granted and return to eat. The most skittish was the male cardinal, so it took a little longer for him to fly in to grab a snack, but a little perseverance (and some numb appendages) was really all it took for him to be OK with me being there. The second day I was there I saw a second male. The two fellas squabbled a bit, as these birds are notoriously territorial. Their preoccupation with each other allowed me to get closer for a portrait or two amongst the tree branches. The lack of leaves on the tree allowed me to not only see them better but also follow their activity more accurately than I could have in the warmer months.

So to bird or not to bird in sub-freezing temperatures, that is the question. I say yes, if you have the patience and warm clothes. Of course, I never claimed to be the smartest guy in town.

Christian Begeman grew up in Isabel and now lives in Sioux Falls. When he’s not working at Midcontinent Communications he is often on the road photographing our prettiest spots around the state. Follow Begeman on his blog.


Posted on by — Leave a comment

Watch for Eagles

By Rebecca Johnson

Some extremely knowledgeable members of the Sioux Falls Bird Club guided me through the prairie pothole regions near Sioux Falls last year. They were more than welcoming towards this newbie who couldn’t tell a sparrow from a starling. I assured my new friends I would practice. Oh, I had great intentions. But the adult bald eagle is still the only bird I can identify with certainty.

That’s why I love January. Sure, a little post-party depression sets in after the holiday hoopla. And the cold days drag on as you wait to turn the calendar to February. But get excited! It’s National Bald Eagle Watch Month!

The bald eagle diet is mostly fish, so the best watching places are below the big dams like Oahe, Big Bend, and Gavins Point, says K.C. Jensen, associate professor in South Dakota State University’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences.”The water is always open there and there are usually fish to be had,” Jensen says.

It’s been reported that last summer’s flooding caused an explosion in Yankton’s fish population and I suspect the bald eagles are benefiting. South Dakota Game Fish and Parks recently completed mid-winter waterfowl surveys along the length of the Missouri. They also record eagle numbers and counted 281 between Sioux City and Big Bend Dam.”The great majority of [the eagles] were sighted immediately below Gavins Point Dam at Yankton,” says Jensen.

Bald eagles like to eat in the morning and there were at least 40 breakfasting at Paddlewheel Point downstream from Riverside Park a few days ago. I was able to sneak out to see them, since it’s just a few blocks from the magazine, and was amazed to see so many converged in one place. The majority were seated on a piece of ice jutting out from the bank while a few majestically roosted in the trees. I checked again this morning. The snow kept a few away, but there were still several feeding. If you’re lucky enough to live along the river like me, bundle up, grab your binoculars and celebrate Bald Eagle Watch Month this weekend.