(Area) Iowa is in the middle of its annual bald eagle population survey.
Early indications point to 2022 being a really good year for eagles wintering in Iowa. “Bald eagles are migratory and they travel as far as they need to to be able to find food. When we have open water along our river systems we attract a lot of eagles. Eagles from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan tend to migrate into Iowa and over winter. As long as they can find food they’ll stay here.”
Bryan Hayes with the Iowa DNR Office in Lewis says historically the Mississippi River hosted a lot of eagles through the winter, but that has shifted. “More recently rivers like the Iowa River and the Des Moines River have actually had higher counts of eagles during the winter survey. The lower Des Moines River in the most recent survey indicated there are about 1,500 eagles using that river. Here in Southwest Iowa it is not uncommon to see eagles during the winter.”
Iowa began participating in a national survey of eagle nests in 1991. Since then the number of nests has more than quadrupled to over 500 active eagle nests.
