Masters of the Sky educates and entertains scores of folks at Pere Marquette
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By Cory Davenport
Eagle season has come to the entire Riverbend area with sightseers, nature photographers, and avian enthusiasts spotting the majestic national bird throughout the region’s great river systems.
To celebrate, Pere Marquette State Park hosted an Eagle Festival last weekend inside its lodge. Folks in attendance could get a hot coffee and cold, homemade, super premium ice cream from food trucks just outside the doors before going inside for an entire vendor and craft fair, taking up the entire atrium of the lodge. Many of the vendors had several items relating to eagles and other birds of prey.
Once there, tickets could be purchased to see a raptor presentation called Masters of the Sky. Raptors, in this case, do not refer to the small feathered dinosaurs of the Cretaceous Period made famous by the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchises, but instead their descendants – birds of prey. Ticketholders could attend a presentation at the lodge featuring not only eagles but also hawks, falcons, owls, and vultures. Tickets were sold out around 2 p.m., though, an hour before the festival was set to conclude.
Folks who may have missed the Eagle Festival still have at least a couple of weeks to truly experience eagle season in the region. With colder temperatures north of the area and large chunks of ice floating on the Mississippi River, several bald eagles are still around. Following the Eagle Festival at Pere Marquette State Park, several folks just south of Grafton had pulled their vehicles to the side of the road to snap photographs of a lone eagle sitting on a piece of floating ice, hunting for fish just below the surface.
According to Scott Isringhausen of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), several bald eagles also stay around the area throughout the year. More and more nests are being spotted by both the IDNR and Audubon Center at Riverlands in West Alton. This means bald eagles will be a constant presence in the region, and their numbers are on the rise.
Currently, and usually every winter, bald eagles from north of the area move south to reach open waters not yet completely frozen. When waters around this area freeze entirely, bald eagles native to here will move slightly farther south. They do not move too far from their homes, however, and return as soon as possible, so more mild winters – especially when the weather is mild north of the region as well – will result in less eagles being seen during their peak winter season.
