Fewer bald eagles? Volunteer counters show decline from last year

APPLE RIVER – The 63rd annual Midwinter Bald Eagle Count conducted Jan. 28 and 29 by volunteers across the Upper Mississippi River Valley showed a sharp decline from the previous year.

However, the organization that oversees this volunteer effort said that seven dams along the Mississippi River did not send in a report and may account for the drop in numbers.

Terrence Ingram, president of the Eagle Nature Foundation, said volunteers from southern Illinois to northern Minnesota counted a total of 1,127 bald eagles. The previous year’s count was 2,070.

The percentage of immature eagles sighted was at 24.7%, close to the 63-year average of 27.1%. But this year’s number was 189, compared with 406 in 2022.

The count is timed to take place before the northward migration starts in late February.

Among other findings:

Mississippi River Lock and Dam 5A near Fountain City, Wisconsin, sighted no eagles, when it had 52 adults the year before.

Counts along the Illinois River were about the same year-to-year.

The area along the St. Croix River in Minnesota had lower counts in both the last two years, a total decline of 184.

Lock and Dam No. 19 near Keokuk, Iowa, saw 28 more eagles than the year previous.

The Missouri River in eastern Nebraska recorded 30 fewer eagles than last year.