On it were a small group of naturalists with two shrouded crates that carried the eagles. They were headed for Plum Island, about 100 yards from the crowd that had gathered at Starved Rock State Park in rural northern Illinois.
As the crew carefully, and quietly, transported the crates onto land, the onlookers cheered, and readied their cameras.
“Great day,’’ Dawn Keller said as she looked up at the blue sky on this recent warm, sunny November day.
Keller is the executive director of Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation, an organization based in the Chicago area that rescued the eagles on Memorial Day. They were about 6 weeks old at the time.
Keller and her army of volunteers have rescued wild animals and countless birds — hawks, turkey vultures, owls. But this was the first time they’d rehabilitated eaglets and helped them learn to fly. Indeed, the fact that this release was happening in a state like Illinois is a testament to how far the bald eagle has come in the last 40 years.
Once in danger of extinction due to loss of habitat and use of pesticides such as DDT, the bald eagle has made a remarkable comeback in many states where it had struggled. They include some you might expect — Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington and Maine, among them.
But the Mississippi River and the rivers that flow to and from it — including the Illinois River — attract a surprising number of bald eagles, many of which stay over winter because the waters where they fish don’t freeze.
And Plum Island, once slated for a development of cabins and a marina until a local Audubon Society chapter purchased it, is now a protected sanctuary where eagles like to congregate.
“On a good day, you might see 40 or 50 eagles on this island in the winter months,’’ says Marc Miller, director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Eagle-watching at Starved Rock, he notes, now generates millions of dollars in revenue for the local economy around the park, also known for its scenic river bluffs and waterfalls and canyon hikes. Miller was among those who accompanied the eagles to the island.
