The eagle has landed...

Seriously, it has. Actually, they have! We took a little road trip the other day to Stella, MO to Eagle Days. It was a scenic drive down and the eagle watching was INCREDIBLE. We have been so fortunate to see eagles in the wild before but this was lots of eagles and not just flying. There were two in a field just sitting. Have NOT seen that before. And when we have seen them before there were only one or two. We saw two in a nest and we saw two flying; all in Florida. This trip we saw eight flying at once and then a few miles down another a couple dirt roads, bam, five more in another location. We also saw an immature eagle who had not yet gotten his distinguishing white head and tail. 

The little dot in the middle of the upper two barb wire fencing is the eagle.

We also saw several white and red tail among other variety of hawks. And, of course, as per our normal bird looking we saw lots of birds we could not identify. We are hilarious to listen to, I'm sure, as we try and determine a birds identity. It's a good way to enjoy sunshine in January and that's a fact! Bird looking is quite fun.

As we made our way back north we popped in to visit the local National Monument. I had been as a child but wow it has changed dramatically. In 2007 they built a new facility and it is truly world class. One of the finest National Monuments we have visited. Very well done, a nice hands on area as well as an educational area along with a true museumish area It really is a wonderful building. The park ranger on duty was so cordial, as well as chatty and informative. We enjoyed this little side stop for sure.

A day or two after our eagle outing we decided to make another little day excursion over to the local conservation area. It's another place I had not been since a child; and, it was not at all as I remembered. In fact I don't think we were in the area I had been to before. We had hoped to see eagles. We had read that last year they reported 25 eagles were in the area. We, unfortunately, did not see any. We did, however, see and hear several woodpeckers and a few squirrels along with a couple cardinals. It was still a very pleasant day. We also checked out the campgrounds. Nice primitive sites that would be quiet and peaceful something we will keep in mind should we like to go local for a little getaway.

Trying to find the woodpecker we could hear.!