I great friend of ours that supports and promotes ALLNORTHWOODS.COM sent me a picture (inserted) that is not easily photographed. As he was driving west on Helen Creek Road off of Hwy B, he saw this eagle fly down and seized this raccoon and took this picture minutes later. I apologize if this offends anyone that may believe posting this is brutal, but it’s part of animal survival living in the Northwoods. But he believed the raccoon was hit by a vehicle and already deceased prior to being picked up by the eagle.

If you don’t live up here, you might think eagles migrate south during the winter, because they need fish to live and our lakes are frozen. It’s true eagles do migrate to southern Wisconsin and stay near the Mississippi river shoreline where there is open water. But there are those that will stay the entire winter.

Eagles are opportunistic eaters and even during the summer months when fish are constantly available, they can/will dine on mammals. Those animals could be rabbits, squirrel and obviously raccoons. I have even heard people say they have seen an eagle watching their small dog in their yard.

You can tell the age of eagles by the variation of their plumage. A juvenile eagles (1 to 1 1/2 years old) plumage is mostly blackish or dark brown with slight flecking of white. While an Immature eagle (2 1/2 to 3 years old) has a larger amount of white flickering, their beak starts to turn yellow as does their legs. By (4 1/2 to 5) is when eagles head, neck and tail turn white, their bills and legs turn bright yellow, and their eyes are yellow/white.

Some studies showed juvenile eagles will fly south for their first winter, while immature eagles will stay near their nesting area. Eagles reach their sexual maturity age between 4 and 5 and at this time will look for a mate near their old nesting location before establishing their own territory. Knowing all that is written above, I would have to say the eagle pictured (inserted) in this article is an immature bald eagle that has stayed north for the winter and is most likely close to 3 years old.

After viewing eagles most of my life, I still become awestruck seeing these majestic birds soaring overhead above our lakes.