tundra struck

My mom came to visit this weekend. It was her first visit to La Crosse, and we did a little sightseeing around town. However, we also went down to Brownsville, Minnesota for a bit of birdwatching.

Winter and spring on the Mississippi River are great because this area is a stopover for several types of migrating birds. This time of year, the tundra swans are starting to come in. They stop in the shallow pools between islands in the wide Mississippi to eat arrowhead and pondweed in order to build up fat reserves for the rest of their trip to the east coast. There were about 8,000 swans here on Saturday, but there will be about 20,000 at the height of the migration.

The bald eagles are out and about as well, swooping from the bluffs and fishing in the river. They are best seen in the spring when the ice is melting, but my mom was lucky enough to see them this weekend too.