The Eagles Have Landed

The bald eagles have returned to the Missouri River valley, catching the attention of motorists on both the Iowa and Nebraska sides of the U.S. Highway 34 bridge west of Glenwood.

Late last week, a handful of eagles could be seen hovering and resting on sign posts on the Iowa side of the bridge. By Saturday, nearly three dozen eagles were spotted plucking fish from a frozen pond on the Nebraska side of the bridge by Glenwood photographer Jim Deitchler. The eagles congregated at the same pond on the south side of the highway Sunday afternoon.

The rare migration of eagles doesn’t match the spectacle of nature Mills County enjoyed  in 2011 when an estimated 100 bald eagles made their way to a rural area of Mills County west of Interstate 29 near a borrow-pit lake by Raceway Park of the Midlands.

Nearly 50 eagles returned to the area in 2012, but no significant migrations had occurred over the past five years until last week.