At this time of year in Alton, IL we are soon to bid adieu to our yearly visitors from the north.

Eagle watching is a popular sport here in the fall, winter, and early springtime. The eagles come down from northerly climes where the rivers and streams are frozen solid. Their main diet is fish, and when the water freezes, the birds fly south.

Last Saturday, we decided to take a drive to see if we could see any eagles.

About noon, Ruth, Isaiah, Kroger, and I all piled into the van and headed up The Great River Road. We thought we saw a couple of eagles soaring in the chilly blue, but we know we had a nice drive in the beautiful sunshine with the mighty Mississippi on our left and 60 ft high wooded bluffs on our right.

We drove to Pere Marquette State Park where we took the scenic, winding roads up through the park forest and then back down to the river road.

I took a sequence of pictures to be stitched into single panoramic image, but due to my standard disk labeling procedures, I can't find the disks now... However, later, back in Alton, I took a panorama of our Lock and Dam #26 which I stitched and uploaded before I lost the floppies. It's not as sharp as I would have liked, but I like the colors and the dynamism of the light.

But that was last Saturday. This saturday we most certainly did see an eagle- from 5 feet away!.

Miyaka the eagle, along with his handler, put in an appearance at The Wild Bird Store in St. Louis and we went to see him.

Isaiah was fascinated by the bird, but he isn't quite 2 years old yet, and even such a sight as a bald eagle doesn't hold his attention very long. Soon he was squirming and getting tired of keeping his hands off the overpriced breakables all around. So, with a little prompting from Dadd-O, that's what he calls me, He delighted the densely packed crowd by calling out "Bye, Miyaka... Thanks, Lady" and our second weekly adventure with the eagles drew to a close.

On our way out, we conspicuously slipped a dollar into the donation egg

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A webcam shot of me writing a TOV!

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