{"id":1943,"date":"2018-01-06T10:36:24","date_gmt":"2018-01-06T16:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/?p=1943"},"modified":"2018-01-21T19:22:58","modified_gmt":"2018-01-22T01:22:58","slug":"iowa-bald-eagle-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/iowa-bald-eagle-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Iowa Bald Eagle Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s that time of year when our huge winter population of American Bald Eagles begins to Cluster around the open water below the dams on the Upper Mississippi River. The Iowa DNR is releasing a series of posts on their <em>Bald Eagle Midwinter Survey<\/em> which may interest many of you!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jan 5, 2018: The Iowa Bald Eagle Midwinter Survey<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Iowa is one of the most important wintering grounds for Bald Eagles with thousands of the huge raptors moving into the state from the north to join our resident breeding birds.\u00a0 Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan all have some of the highest densities of nesting Bald Eagles in the lower 48 states and many of those eagles, especially from MN and WI move into Iowa during the winter months and frequently gather in large numbers around areas of open water to feed and roost.<\/p>\n<p class=\"m_3204703563117233479gd_p\" align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1156 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/eageles-and-nest-201x300.jpg\" alt=\"sepia eagles on nest\" width=\"201\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/eageles-and-nest-201x300.jpg 201w, http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/eageles-and-nest.jpg 636w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 201px) 100vw, 201px\" \/>Since the early 1990s, the Iowa DNR, plus a small army of volunteers has recorded this phenomenon during the <em>Bald Eagle Midwinter Survey<\/em> that takes place in the first two weeks of every year.\u00a0 Surveyors scope the trees, air and ice for Iowa\u2019s largest raptor while driving snowy roads which wind along next to many of Iowa\u2019s biggest rivers.\u00a0 There are 52 set routes in Iowa that cover over 1500 miles in 45 counties and along at least 13 rivers.\u00a0 The Des Moines and Mississippi river host the largest number of Eagles, which can usually be found concentrated below a dam or other area of open water.\u00a0 While Bald Eagles are very territorial during the nesting season, they are much less so in the winter though you may witness a squabble or two over a coveted fish at these congregation spots.<\/p>\n<p class=\"m_7017187777868787341gd_p\" align=\"left\">\u00a0 \u00a0 <strong>Bald Eagle Trends<\/strong>:\u00a0In\u00a0<span class=\"il\">Iowa<\/span>, the survey has revealed a steady increase in Eagle numbers since the survey began. There are big fluctuations from year to year based on weather, ice coverage, and food resource availability among other things but overall the trend has been upward. That rise in numbers has started to plateau in recent years as Eagle populations stabilize throughout the Midwest region.\u00a0Bald Eagle Trends:<\/p>\n<p class=\"m_7017187777868787341gd_p\" align=\"left\">Another important statistic we track is the percent of Immatures versus Adults in the count.\u00a0 A good and steady number of immatures is a sure sign of a healthy population.\u00a0 About one-third of the birds counted on the survey are immatures and this trend has stayed steady for many years. (More Survey Results to be posted soon)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s that time of year when our huge winter population of American Bald Eagles begins to Cluster around the open water below the dams on the Upper Mississippi River. The Iowa DNR is releasing a series of posts on their &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/iowa-bald-eagle-update\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,168,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birding","category-travel-mexico","category-upper-mississippi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1943"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1965,"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943\/revisions\/1965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.greatriver.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}