Her arms spread wide to display the impressive wingspan of an American Bald Eagle, eagle expert Lori Carnes spent Wednesday morning citing fascinating tidbits about the nation’s mascot.
The Mediapolis Elementary School teacher is a favorite during the annual bald eagle programs hosted by Des Moines County Conservation and had planned on leading an impromptu class to Lock and Dam 1 for some eagle viewing after her presentation.
Weather conditions prevented the eagle viewing, but Carnes is far from done with her eagle education. Beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday (Jan. 18), she will demonstrate how to build a bald eagle nest at Starr’s Cave Nature Center. A week later (Jan. 25), she will lead an official eagle count at Lock and Dam 18. It begins with a 10 a.m. presentation at The Port of Burlington Welcome Center, and all are welcome.
Carnes has been teaching second-grade students about bald eagles since stumbling upon the Decorah eagle webcam, which documents the life of a bald eagle from birth to adulthood.
For humans, that process takes years. For bald eagles, it takes about six to eight weeks.
“Every year, I’ve learned how better to integrate it into my curriculum,” Carnes said during a previous eagle presentation. “Now I tie it into language arts, I tie it into math, geography. We learn adjectives, nouns, verbs. We do a lot of writing. One of the hardest things to do is to get kids to write.”
She’s been teaching for 40 years and has found a renewed passion for her job by teaching her students about bald eagles.
That is how she learned a bald eagle’s feet are much like that of an octopus. Each toe has the power to squeeze at 400 pounds per square inch, while the average human hand can only squeeze something at 20 pounds per square inch. The father of a baby bald eagle looks over the nest about 30 percent of the time, while the mother is responsible for it the remaining 70 percent.
And the noble species of the bird nearly went extinct in the 1970s due to the pesticide DDT, which weakened eagle eggs to the point where they would break before hatching.
Carnes will lead another program from 10 to 11 a.m. Monday (Jan. 20) at Starr’s Cave Nature Center titled, “Eagle Cycle Life.” This program will explore the life of an eagle from every angle, and another eagle watching opportunity with Carnes at Lock and Dam 18 will follow.
The series of eagle events will end with an annual bald eagle count at 10 a.m. next Saturday (Jan 25), beginning with one last presentation by Carnes at The Welcome Center.
Participants will caravan to Lock and Dam 18 in Illinois and are expected to arrange their own transportation. Birdwatchers will be given instruction in eagle identification and counting methods used for the survey, and binoculars will be available for loan.
There is no fee or registration required for any of the programs, and participants can come and go as they please. For more information, contact Starr’s Cave Nature Center at (319) 753-5808.
Photo by Joy Mack