Return Trip

Jeez, my return to AZ was nearly 2 weeks ago - probably overdue to post about it! It started with what is getting to be a tradition - meeting my sister Linda and her husband Lauren to hunt for eagles along the Mississippi! Clinton, IA (where I was born) has a bald eagle festival the first weekend of January. On most years, the Mississippi is iced over and eagles gather below lock and dam #13 where the open water allows fishing. When that occurs, you can see hundreds of bald eagles in the trees along the river, occasionally taking flight and hunting fish. Both last year and this, there was no ice (temps in the 60s, which we enjoyed on Christmas will do that!), so we had to go hunting for what used to be a rare sighting of eagles. Back 50 years ago growing up in the area, we never saw eagles, but they are quite common now.

But we did have a couple brisk nights with temps in the low 20s, and some strong winds, and as we went exploring along the eastern shore of "Lake Clinton" above the dam, we saw some cool sightings of the shore, plants and rocks with a translucent coating of ice, melting in the late-afternoon sun. These were taken at "Thompson Slough" where there was a nice-looking campground that my sister's family had stayed a number of times.

It was quite striking, both the ice coating around the water line, as well as the water itself - there was enough wave action that random "puzzle pieces" in the water moved up and down relative to each other with an edge of slushy ice along the border, as shown at left. With the moderate temperatures, the ice likely didn't hang around long...



So the search for eagles continued.  Last year we had success up near Sabula - another 10 miles upstream on the Iowa side. One of my favorite aunts lived in the area until a few years ago, and there was little excuse to visit the area any more! Anyway, there is a little city park on the south side of "Sabula Lake", and as we headed there, sure enough, there were a couple eagles standing atop some thin ice on the still water... As shown at left, these were the only eagles we spotted on New Year's Day. With the river open, it was NOT fishing as normal with them hanging out in the trees along the river. These photos were taken in the very-late afternoon (about 30 minutes before sunset) with a big, 500mm telephoto lens. We were not very close to this pair (perhaps 100 yards or more), but the following close-ups are shown at full-resolution. The closer of the eagles took off just as I was setting up on it, so got a quick sequence of it jumping into the air...


After the first hop upwards above, the first wing flap appears to have bounced off the ice, as shown at left. By the next stroke at right he was truly airborne and on his way. I should have cranked up the gain (ISO) on the camera in the growing gloom, but the longish exposures had subsequent images blur unacceptably...

We scurried back down to Fulton (across the Mississippi from Clinton), and met some family for dinner at Manny's - a pizza and sandwich place of some renown. All the siblings save baby sister Sheri, now in Alabama, were there, as was my Uncle John and his family, including his son who was visiting from the Boston area - a real family reunion!

Already to the Mississippi, I headed towards AZ from there. I made it to Des Moines that night, then drove all day down across Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas into New Mexico staying at Tucumcari the second night. Didn't take any photos for much of the trip, but a striking sight from even 100 miles away was the San Francisco Peaks welcoming me back to AZ - the remnant of an ancient volcano and at 14,000+ feet the highest point in the state. Here I was still 30 miles east of Flagstaff (and the mountain), but even from that distance it was an impressive view! So the trip was uneventful, short at 12 days away, but still very glad I did it!