Looking for Eagles

 Rachel's family came to St. Louis to see the bald eagles.  Although we had seen plenty of eagles in the past, this year had been too warm. We had heard there weren't nearly as many.  Click here for the blog on eagle watching 3 years ago.

First, we went to the Melvin Price Lock and Dam outside of Alton, IL.  They have a wonderful museum there and there are always birds flying around the churning waters.  The only birds we saw were gulls, but we did get to see a tug boat coming through the locks.

 But, there is also a wonderful museum there explaining the lock system, the efficiency of barges, the wildlife of the Misssissippi River.  The kids loved it---they made eagle hats, colored pictures, tried a game which had them piloting a barge and we watched a movie about eagles.  We drove a little further to Hartford, IL so the kids could see the confluence of the rivers from an observation tower.

 They are on the top floor (there is an elevator but they walked)--see the red in the photo below.

 Rachel and I had chosen to stay below---we thought we saw an eagle. . .

 That it didn't have a white head, didn't bother us (immature bald eagles have brown heads), but when we saw it from an angle, we realized a white chest was definitely not a bald eagle. . .