Sept. 18 Day 32 Tomah, WI
Today was exciting from beginning to end! We drove along the Mississippi River on US 61 to the Wabasha Public Library, parked the RV, and headed to the NATIONAL Eagle Center. We have seen the word ?National? too often on minimal attractions, but we were impressed with the beautiful building sitting right on the Mississippi. We paid $6 admission, and we immediately went to the 1:00 presentation. Wow!
The speaker told us that 3 of the 4 ?girls? (bald eagles) were out ?having their nails done.? They go into the Raptor Center in Minneapolis for coping (having their beaks filed--sides and tips and their talons clipped.)
She gave us a brief bio on each one. The one still on display, Harriet, was 17 when she was hit by a car. How? If prey is killed on the road (perhaps a deer), they find this an easy dinner-to-go, like our fast food. When they see a car coming, they think it is another predator coming to steal their dinner, so they ?mantle?, raise their hackles and feathers, and cover it with their wings. By the time they realize that it is a car, they can?t get enough lift quickly enough because they are such a heavy bird, weighing 10-11 pounds. Females weigh 1/3 more than males. The colder the environment, the more they weigh. It?s not unusual for an Alaskan female to weigh 15 pounds.
They can store 1 pound of food in their crop, which makes take-off tough. It takes them a long time to get above the height of a car. Harriet?s left wing hit the top of a van and had to be amputated at the wrist. They knew she was 17 because she was banded in the nest. She is now 31. In the wild, the lifespan is 25-30 years. She has a cowlick on her head. She has appeared on Jay Leno, the Today Show, and her picture is on Minnesota?s Support Our Troops plate. Harriet likes to eat at 3:00, rather than 1:00, so they are hoping the others come back soon.
Angel, age 13, is the loudest, and on cue, she screams out to let everyone know she?s back. She can see eagles outside through the windows that are everywhere, and she is saying, ?GET LOST!? to those eagles. She broke her wing and the bones fused. Herons throw fish forcefully at eagles who invade their rookeries. However, her wing could have been broken in a myriad of ways. They got Angel within a couple days of her breaking her wing, so they re-broke her wing and put in rings and rods. It healed beautifully. But?it only takes bald eagles 10 weeks to reach the same size as the parents. So, while her wing was healing, the muscles that needed to form so quickly couldn?t. She can fly about 10 feet.
Columbia was hit by a car. She had lead poisoning. They probably caught her within a day or 2 of her ingesting it. It kills an eagle in 5-6 days. She is brain-damaged. Lead is inexpensive, so it is used in sinkers and tackle. Sometimes it is in the fish that the eagles eat. Deer hunters often dress the deer in the woods and leave a pile of guts. Eagles have a bad sense of smell, so they would not eat what they couldn?t see. If hunters would just cover them with leaves. A piece of lead less than the size of a BB will kill an eagle.
The stomach acid of a hawk or eagle has a PH of 1 or 2. Battery acid is a 1. They can digest bones, but they cough up pellets of fur and feather.
Donald, a golden eagle, was eating road kill when he was hit by a car. His age in unknown, but he is en years or more. Golden eagles are here from mid-October to mid-March. Goldens don?t like water and don?t recognize fish as food. The male and female golden eagles are together all the time. They are a powerful team and have twice unsuccessfully tried to take a white-tailed deer here. They are ?booted? meaning that their leg feathers go all the way to the ankles. Bald eagles are ?fish eagles? , and their feathers go just halfway down their legs.
Washaka, age 3, the last bald eagle, is flighted. She had a tumor on his left eyelid, which left him blind. Most eagles can see a rabbit on a bluff over a mile away. Washaka would not be able to hunt on his own.
Only 50% of eagles make it to their first birthday. Only 20% make it to adulthood, 5-6 years old when they get their white heads.
Eagles have strong nest-site fidelity. When they return to the nest each spring, they lock talons and do cartwheels to check out each other?s physical fitness to reproduce and raise a new family. If one of them doesn?t pass, they will select another mate. (I wonder who gets the house!) Bald eagles? nests can weigh 3 tons. They aren?t neat eaters, so they add nesting material to cover up the decayed fish, bugs, etc. Angel was messy and threw a morsel of fish in the speaker?s hair. Then, with the center built up, they have to add material to build up the sides.
As eagles age, they have to grow longer feathers, so they molt The National Eagle Repository gets all feathers that are molted, and they redistribute them to qualified native Americans for spiritual uses.
Angel was brought in, with her yellow beak, yellow eyes, and yellow feet (Picture 1). She has a 7? wingspan. We were warned to quickly back up if she turns her back to us because SHE CAN SHOOT HER POOP 6 FEET!
She is quite a character. They feed the eagles fish that are donated by fishermen when possible because they are free, so they don?t always have the kinds they prefer. If Angel is offered something she doesn?t like, such as carp, she looks for her handlers? fingers that are carefully hidden under the bowl, so she can bite her! She liked the northern pike that she was fed today. (Picture 2) When she was finished, she announced, ?I?m read to go now,? by flapping her wings. (Picture 3)
At the conclusion, we were able to get our pictures taken with a different bald eagle (Picture 4) so we could see the eagle really close (Picture 5). Then she announced she was ready to go (Picture 6).
Every Tuesday they put leashes on the eagles and take them for a swim in the Mississippi.
Our speaker was fascinating and strong. Holding your arm out with 10 pounds on it for 45 minutes is quite a feat. When the eagle was eating, he put 50-70 pounds of pressure on her hand. This is a ?MUST GO TO? if you are within 300 miles.
It was after 3:00, and we had an early breakfast. On TripAdvisor, I found T-Bones Grill and Bar. I had the Reuben, which was very good, and Dean enjoyed his cheeseburger. The building is architecturally interesting and pretty. The owner is a cattle rancher, and ?he wanted good food when he came to town,? so he developed his own restaurant. Service was great. I would recommend it.
We didn't stop at LARK because it was getting late, but it did look interesting. We'd definitely stop next time.
It was only 50 miles to Tomah, which is near tomorrow?s attraction. Should be easy, right? SO WRONG! We use the RV?s GPS and my I-phone?s Mapquest. Both told us to turn right, and they took us out on a dike surrounded by huge rectangular ponds that are cranberry bogs. Then the road turned to dirt! Scary! Water was on all sides of us, and we were on this narrow dirt dike?definitely could not turn around, even if we detached the Jeep. And, darkness was descending upon us. When we saw a fisherman, I told Dean to stop and ask him for directions. He didn?t know how to get a vehicle our size out of the bogs, so he hopped in his pick-up, explored, found a way out that would fit us, and came back and guided us out to the highway. Relief! His truck had North Carolina plates, and I am so grateful to that Southerner, who told us, ?By the way, you found the best fishing hole in Wisconsin!? As I said, it was an exciting day. But this kind of excitement, we?d be happy to skip.
Staying at WalMart