Slightly Off the Mark: Bald Eagles at Salamonie Reservoir

Just a photo blog today. After we got my glasses repaired a few weeks ago (long story), we headed down to the Salamonie reservoir near Huntington, where we proceeded to drive around aimlessly for awhile. Well, not completely aimless--we were looking for bald eagles.

When I was a kid, a bald eagle was something you'd just heard of, and maybe seen on TV. But this time of year the Salamonie area is now teaming with them, if you're willing to go out into the cold to see. We were willing ... reluctantly.

We weren't sure exactly where they were being seen, until we stopped at an overlook near the top of the dam. Were those folks down there hauling around huge cameras for some mystical reason?

Yes. Yes, they were, and way better cameras than we had. But never mind that: There are lots of photos of bald eagles at Salamonie--we had binoculars too, and just wanted to see them for ourselves.

The place you want to go is where there's open water, because an eagle's gotta eat. Of course, a lot of water in the area was frozen, even waterfalls. Indiana's larges icicle. That brought us to the other side of the dam and the Salamonie River.

"Hey, Mark--what's that directly over your head?"

We walked past three ice fishermen who were ingesting some pretty good antifreeze, and I ventured over some frozen sandbars and ice to get a shot of this fellow, who couldn't care less. It was only when we came back that one of the fishermen pointed out there was another eagle directly across the river from them, no hazardous travel involved.

I think this is the best shot we got of any of them. We saw at least five bald eagles, one of them a juvenile who flew directly over our heads. Maybe more, or maybe we saw the same ones more than once as we tromped around the area.

It was a great day despite the weather. We didn't worry too much about disturbing the birds, because the three fishermen were being pretty vocal, and the bald eagle closest to them just didn't care. Maybe if they actually caught something he'd be more interested.

And finally, because we do like a little adventure, everywhere we went we encountered these signs:

We were right below the dam, after all. Luckily, no siren sounded. If one had, it would have been when I as inching my way across the ice, trying to get a clear shot of that waterfall. I'd imagine I would have looked hilarious, slipping and scrambling my way back, but those things are only funny if they aren't followed up by the words, "And they never found his body".

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