Eagles at La Crosse

The Ice moving Out

La Crosse, Wisconsin is situated on the eastern banks of the Mississippi River, at the confluence of both the La Crosse River and Black River.

I’ve been told that with the many nests along the Mississippi River, spotting a Bald Eagle in the warmer months is a common occurrence.

During the winter months, as the rivers are frozen over, the eagles tend to stay near open water provided by the dams.

As the ice starts to recede control of the water’s surface, more eagles appear.

I’ve been fortunate to time the arrival of the eagles to early March, depending upon the spring temperatures.

I went over this year on March 4th. I think I was on the early side of the transition.

The Black River

The Black River was just starting to open. The eagles were well aware.

There were a number of eagles on the edge of the ice, much farther out than my lens would reach.

In locations where the river was still frozen over, with the exception of the fly-overs, there no eagle sightings.

On the day that I was there, the sky north of me was blue, yet directly overhead and to the south was overcast.

All eagle pictures taken with the overcast background sky were deleted. Not at all attractive.

I was lucky.

A few eagles decided to just enjoy the day sitting in trees just to my north.

I was using a Canon EF 500mm f/4 L II IS USM lens, with a 1.4x telextender on my 1DxMIII.

For all stationary eagles, I used a tripod. The few that flew close enough were taken hand-holding the camera and lens combination.

And soon, the Pelicans

On that day, I was told by one local photographer that there would be more eagles in the coming days accumulating along the rivers as the ice continued to recede.

Of course, I wouldn’t be there then!

And after the eagles, he mentioned large flocks of American White Pelicans would stop over into the now open water of the three rivers.

I’ll be trying to get a free day to head back over to La Crosse for that opportunity in the next week.