Rodman Slough

Credit Kathleen Scavone

A bonanza of bird watching occurs at the sighting of any of the hundreds of bird species found around Lake County’s 50,000 acres. What’s not to love with the sheer variety of vitality found in and among our working watershed? But watching bald eagles has to be at the top of my list of favorites. I’ve been lucky enough to sight them in a number of locations across the county.

For example, at Coyote Valley Elementary School, soaring the skies where nearby Hidden Valley Lake provided the bald eagles with tasty fish. I’ve sighted them at Rodman Slough, on the Cache Creek Redbud Trail, and numerous times along the edges of Clear Lake in many parks. I watched a juvenile, darker in color, as it perched near the swimming beach at Clear Lake State Park, and I’ve enjoyed many other adult bald eagle sightings over the years.

Recently, I watched the skies over South Middletown as two red-tailed hawks called continuously and circled, along with a bald eagle! It was so much fun to watch these amazing acrobats who performed a two-day show. Since winter is peak time to view bald eagles in Lake County, they were ‘on schedule,’ but they are usually seen at lakes and reservoirs, and I’ve not seen them this far south in the county before.

Apparently, the creeks in South Middletown were enticing enough for these magnificent creatures to explore, with bubbling Bradford Creek merging into St. Helena Creek. As the hawks and eagles rested atop grey pine trees, they allowed me to sneak some more peeks at their unique features. According to Cornell Lab’s All About Birds, it’s possible that the bald eagle was trying to scavenge a meal from the red-tailed hawk.

Bald eagles, our national emblem since 1782, range from Alaska, throughout the U.S. mainland down to northern Mexico, where they swoop down to dine upon fish and mammals, snatching them up with their powerful talons. They also consume birds. Since bald eagles thrive in any form of wetlands or open water sources that hold lots of fish, we are bound to see them across Lake County sooner or later. They do prefer old-growth stands of conifers or hardwood to perch upon, roost, or nest, however.

The bald eagle, colored almost black with beautifully contrasting white plumage, is a soaring bird, and they are even larger than turkey vultures, since eagles’ wingspan is around 80 inches. These beautiful birds can live long lives, with the oldest ever recorded at 38 years old, just prior to being struck by an automobile in New York.

Sometimes all that we need to do is show up, step outside, and take a look! Wa La! Nature in all of its glory! According to Redbud Audubon, Lake County is designated as an Important Bird Area by ornithologists, with Rodman Slough County Park, Anderson Marsh State Historic Park, and Clear Lake State Park being especially blessed with an abundance of avian species.

When you join Redbud Audubon as a visitor or member, you will learn about bird walks, hikes, and events, including their Speaker Series. Their events page is packed with educational goodies, such as How Birds Created the World, Grebe Monitoring Program, Lake County Birds, What Makes a Blue Bird Special, and much more.