A stop off at the National Eagle Center

This weekend I am participating in the Midwest Birding Symposium which is being held in the the quad cities of Iowa and Illinois. I drove down yesterday and instead of taking the freeway I decided to take the scenic route down the Mississippi. I made a stop on my way down at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN. I have been to the eagle center quite a few times over the past 8 years but they just completed their new center and it is very impressive.

The old center used to be in an old store front in downtown Wabasha and was approximately 2000 spare feet. The new facility is 14000 square feet. It is built right on the river and includes an observation balcony, several class rooms, a glass enclosed lobby for easy river viewing, and a glass enclosed area to house up to 10 educational eagles. Here are some pictures that I took of the facility.

The front entrance is marked by a beautiful eagle relief sculpture. The glass wall behind the brick is the lobby and gift shop areas.Here is a close up of the sculpture.The back side of the lobby is also glass. In this picture you can also see part of the second floor balcony which looks out over the river.The eagles have their own room with windows that open up and over look the river, a visitor viewing area, and a back room area to take care of their feeding and medical needs. The eagle area is separated from the lobby by a glass wall.Angel is one of 3 current resident educational eagles. Angel is about 9 years old, Columbia is the youngest of the 3 at about 6 and Harriet is about 26 years old. All three came from Wisconsin. We were told that the center is currently working on trying to get a golden eagle to compliment the current educational birds.

The center is having their grand opening celebration on September 29th. I know that Michelle and I will be there and I would certainly recommend it to anyone who is interested in eagles.