This weekend the public is invited to venture outdoors and view Eagles in the wild. This is the last of the scheduled Eagle Day events in Missouri for this winter. Viewing scopes will be focused on eagle nests at three sites, Lake Wappapello, Duck Creek Conservation Area and Mingo National Wildlife Refuge. We've been seeing pairs of nesting Eagles around their nests, so the odds of observing Eagles are high.
Staff from the Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, MO will present hourly live eagle programs featuring a Bald Eagle, Phoenix.
At four other stations, naturalists will provide visitors with facts about wetland habitats, food webs, adaptations and successful attempts to restore Eagles to the area. The Visitor Center will have crafts, an Eagle video, and exhibits about the Bald Eagle.
Participants can see a model hacking tower. It will be used to demonstrate how eaglets were raised on the Refuge in hopes they would imprint on the area and return to raise their young. Thirty-four Eagles were successfully hacked from 1981 through 1988.
Call Mingo National Wildlife Refuge for specific information at 573/222-3589.
Painting of a Bald Eagle by PJH
