Eagle traffic

So, last Sunday I decided I would go flying to practice and keep my skills current. It was about 20 degrees out, and I hadn't flown the Gobosh in cold weather, so I was looking to see how well the heater worked.

Pretty much started right up, but it took a long time to warm up the engine. Then I went to take off, and it just jumped off the runway and climbed really fast. The dense cold air really makes the propeller more efficient. I take off, head east across the St. Croix river into Wisconsin, and decide to practice some steep turns. I'm at about 2500 feet altitude, and while looking out for other planes, I see an eagle. And then another, and two in a row, and another that comes really close to the plane - maybe 200 feet away. I figure that's just some group of eagles flying south down the river. So I set up for my steep turns, and do a couple of shallow clearing turns to make sure there are no other planes around. And there is another eagle, and it's at my altitude, and I turn a little because it's really close. I do my steep turns and afterwards I see 3 more eagles, all around my altitude.

It's starting to get a little scary, because a bird that big could do some serious damage to the plane, and it would be really sad to hit one. I wonder if they would just naturally avoid the plane? Maybe they're so much more maneuverable than I am, and there isn't any real danger. But big jetliners are sometimes brought down by birds. So I decide to go back to the airport and practice some crosswind landings and takeoffs.

The part of the St. Croix river near the airport is wide and slow, and freezes over in the winter. If you follow the river south, it flows into the Mississippi, and Lake Pepin. Where Lake Pepin ends, there's some fast water that doesn't freeze, and it's a well-known spot for eagles to hang out and fish. Maybe these eagles were moving down the river to find open water. I guess the St. Croix / Mississippi is a migratory flyway, and so if the weather is turning colder, maybe the eagles are just migrating south.

I wish I had taken out my camera and taken a picture, but the one at the top of the post will have to work. Kinda busy flying the plane - I should get a passenger to take pictures sometime.