We purchased a travel trailer recently and the first order of business was to take it out on a short “shakedown cruise” to a campground at a state park not too far from us. And since we were out and about, we decided to visit the National Eagle Center in Wabasha for our Minnesota Meanderings in August. For previous meanderings, see these posts: Spam Museum, Bell Museum of Natural History, Como Park Zoo and Conservatory, Fort Snelling, and Great Lakes Aquarium.
Back to the breakdown cruise – I mean, shakedown cruise – we chose to revisit one of our favorite state parks from the hiking club years: Whitewater. My husband suggested we call our new camper “Bag End,” which is a nod to Lord of the Rings. Our faithful white Honda Pilot has already been named “Shadowfax,” so it seemed only fitting to continue the theme. Bag End proved to be a wonderfully cozy little home in the forested campground.
We learned all sorts of things about its inner workings as we lived in it for a couple days, and Kris got in some fly fishing, one of the reasons he wanted to return to this park. The naturally curious among you will want to know if he caught any fish. Well, no, but he saw some. Part of the allure of fly fishing, though, is just the beauty and solitude of the experience as you walk through the river casting your line. At least that’s what I’ve heard – it does not hold any allure for me.
The National Eagle Center is perched on the Mississippi River in Wabasha, Minnesota. If you go there, you simply must purchase tickets (inexpensive) for one of the programs. We arrived just in time for the 1:00 program on the day we went. Our presenter was a wonderfully nerdy young man named Connor, sporting a scraggly beard (Shaggy from Scooby Doo!) and an immensely entertaining delivery style. After ascertaining which states his audience came from, he launched into his presentation of interesting facts about bald eagles (BE’s).
The only state in the U.S. that doesn’t have any BE’s is…what would you guess? If you guessed Hawaii, you go to the head of the class. Connor told us that although Hawaii has a robin (a robin!!!) in their zoo, they do not have any eagles. One kid in the audience called out in a tone of exasperation “Why NOT?” which made us all chuckle. Why not, indeed? The state with the most BE’s is…take a guess! If you guessed Minnesota you’d be close but it’s actually Alaska, whose population of BE’s is the same number as that of the lower 48 states combined. Minnesota comes in second, by the way.
Okay, I’ll reel off a few more facts and figures that were imparted to us by the Bearded One:
There are three features that distinguish raptors (eagles, owls, hawks and falcons) from other birds: talons (not the same as claws, by the way), a D-curved flesh-tearing beak, and incredible eyesight.
A bald eagle’s talons are for grabbing and holding. You have talons, too, by the way – our fingernails are essentially teeny tiny talons. Mine are undoubtedly teenier than most, but I’ve seen women sporting fingernails that could definitely be described as talons. A BE can crack a human femur with a single toe – that’s how impressive their grip strength is. I saw a video once of an eagle flying off with a small deer gripped in its talons as it was flying!!
The beak of a bald eagle is for tearing flesh, but it’s not very powerful compared to their talons. Since BE’s are carnivores, what they eat is relatively soft – “basically mush,” according to Connor.
Their eyesight is their most iconic feature! According to our resident expert, an eagle can spot a rabbit from three miles away! That’s probably about as good as Legolas and the rest of his elven kin (more nodding to LOTR). Their eyes are so large in proportion to their skulls that if we had the same size in proportion to ours, our eyes would have to be as big as hockey pucks. Amusing thought, that.
We looked at a multi-colored rod which demonstrated the wingspan of various birds, the smallest of which was the hummingbird with a wingspan of 4.5” and the largest was an eagle with a wingspan of 6.5 feet to 7.5 feet.
As you may recall from your schooling days, Benjamin Franklin proposed that the turkey, and not the bald eagle, should be our national bird. In fact, he was quoted as saying that bald eagles were “birds of bad moral character.” This was no doubt due to their nature as scavengers and thieves. Connor saw an eagle “pop” a deer that had been killed on the road and was distended with built up liquids. I think he kind of relished telling us this gross story to illustrate his point: “they have no standards when it comes to food!”
You may be wondering, as we were, if we were going to actually see a bald eagle during this presentation. With about 15 minutes left, Connor finally began his introduction of a bald eagle named “Latsch,” the National Eagle Center’s ambassador for the last 8 years Latsch was found near Winona when someone noticed the eagle hadn’t moved for 3 days. It turned out he had a detached retina, which essentially ruined his hunting and flying career.
Connor went through several house rules with us before taking Latsch out of his kennel and also warned the people in the front seats that they were within the “splash zone.” Apparently a BE can “shoot poop” (his phrase not mine) up to 6 to 12 feet. He gave one last opportunity for those in the front seat to move. I saw one lady looking around nervously, but she gathered her courage and stayed put. We were also told to stay seated, to disable the flash feature on our cameras, and to tuck stuffed animals out of sight, since Latsch might think they were real.
I think Latsch was deserving of at least a drum roll after all that, but without anymore ceremony, Connor let him out and held him on his be-gloved arm attached to a leading string.
We all took loads of photos while Latsch posed for us and then made an attempt to eat a rat tail in our presence.
Unfortunately, he dropped the rat tail, never to get it back because of risk of disease once it had been on the floor.
Oh well, there were other rat bits for Latsch to munch on. He also dutifully pooped, but to the relief of everyone in the front seat, did not shoot it at anyone. What a gentleman!
When the show was over, we went across the street to the main building for the National Eagle Center and wandered around looking at various displays and a couple more eagles that were living at the center because of injuries that kept them from being able to survive in the wild.
We went out to the balcony overlooking the great Mississippi and looked in vain for BE’s soaring in the sky. None to be seen! Down below, there was a statue of one of the 3 native Americans who had the name “Wapahasha” from whom the town of Wabasha got its name.
Back at Bag End, we ate our meal and made a campfire, sending a photo to our kids of our idyllic setting. One of our sons, inspired by the Lord of the Rings references, couldn’t resist modifying the photo and sending it back. Yep, he’s one of ours, all right!
Thanks for coming along with us! Next: North America Bear Center
I’ll be dropping this rat tail of a post on the floor in the morning.
Lynniebeemuseoday 
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