This female Eagle has been feeding her 3 chicks while the male remains missing. I am seeing a single eagle up river about a mile which could be him. I think he is trying to catch waterfowl and chicks, but they are in short supply this year after a wild spring with heat waves followed by severe cold fronts. So she is sticking around and catching fish by the nest for the chicks, who are starting to fledge.
I went out on the Rock to do a drift and things are still slow, but I did spots a Raccoon, a Beaver and a Mink. The eagle chicks have been fledging! I can hear hawks in the thick forest but no sign of their nest. Photos are of a Beaver, a Raccoon, Eagles, Mink, Kingbird and a Cuckoo bird.
We had a light north wind and I could barely breath. North winds means steel mill pollution if its running the electric furnaces. It means giant trucks stirring up tons of hazardous dust from slag road along the river for 4 miles. It means idle train engines putting out deadly carbon monoxide, it means 4 miles of dusty slag roads with lots of semis running by stirring it up.
I went out this morning. It was nice out but I had lingering clouds taking the first hour away. I did see a Mink, that was cool. I love the Mink. I also saw 2 Beavers and 2 Raccoons. That is good news, I haven’t been seeing any. The shorebirds are still missing, but the river has been high so no shore for them. I am hearing lots of songbirds, but with all these new wild vines growing all over the trees and bushes its hard to see anything.
The Eagles are starting to fledge in the nest I drift by. I can hear one hawk calling out in the morning. There is a nest in one island, but I can’t see it this year because of leaves. I did see on Kingfisher. They have been missing. One nest/den may have fledged while I was off the river a few days. I haven’t been going to the big river, saving my gas money.
6/19/2026 Rock River Drift – The river dropped another foot or so and cleaned up some. I am hearing a lot of songbirds, but they are hidden most of the time. With fast current I am drifting down really fast … Continue reading
I made it back out on the Rock River. If gas prices would drop I would be going the the Mississippi River because I am not seeing much on the Rock. I saw some junk someone dumped on Rock Falls … Continue reading
I have been watching this nest for a few years. There was another nest up river I was also watching. By watching I mean monitoring, just drifting by without stopping. The current by these nests was too strong to stop anyway and I found watching nests can be boring and one may not want to see what is brought back to the nests.
The nest up river was disturbed by people so much they moved to a new nest, that nest fell and so they came back to the one along the river. Someone kept harassing those eagles causing the nest to fail for 2 years and then the eagles gave up on that nest and now it too fell. So I extended my drift to check on this nest down river.
One day I noticed a red mark on trees by nest, so I got out and walked up to the nest tree and it too was marked. I ran into a logger and showed him the nest and they then decided not to log the area.
Since I have been watching this nest I have seen hundreds of geese and ducks with chicks in that area. Birds do that, they nest in colonies and protect each other’s chicks, even if that means sacrificing a few chicks to the eagles, but I never saw anything like that, they can catch chicks at will anywhere. Except this year, the chicks are missing. I think the wild spring weather killed caused nests to fail. So they have to go for fish, which are mostly large carp, which is dangerous.
While catching these large carp, the male eagle came up missing. The female, picture here, has been doing it all. She again has 3 chicks and they are full grown now and will fledge soon.
Last year and the start of this year, the female sleeps with eyes closed a lot. She naps when I drift by. Sometimes her head hangs down like a wet noodle. Last year she got sick and was down for 2 weeks and the male was feeding the 3 chicks. This year she looks good and has been doing well feeding the chicks. I am not seeing her with eyes closed as much as she keeps an eye out for fish.
In this photo I think she is looking at my little dog who is under my chair where its safe. When I run up river, he goes up front with nose in the wind. One day I looked over and that eagle was flying up river along side of us, pretty close. She was just sharing a moment of enjoyment with my little dog (a Chin), then she flared up and perched on the branch where they sit and watch me run by.
The nest in this location has a gravel bar in front with large rocks, so boats can’t get close. A new owner of the land lets their hunting dop run loose around the nest and causing the eagles to be stressed. That and the dump trucks slamming the boxes down to rattle gravel loose also causes stress. With all that chaos, they still use that nest which has been successful for years. If I see people walk in there an fish under the nest, I will let them know about the nest with eaglets in it and they usually respect the eagles by not returning. In all the nests I know of, most have been pushed out by land owners.
This year is the slowest year yet for wildlife. Everything is missing, or way down in numbers, not just the waterfowl. I think it is the weather, but poachers take their toll as well. Last year there was more waterfowl hunters around and that could be what happened to the geese and ducks. There are also guys who ride around running over wildlife for fun. That is why it’s important to keep an eye on the river.
I did get out to do a drift down the Rock River yesterday and I am still not seeing wildlife. There a lot of songbirds around, but seems many are missing. I did not see any wildlife at all. It … Continue reading
It finally cooled off and so I went out to do a drift. There seemed to be more songbirds around. I saw a lot of them, but missed getting photos. I did see several Indigo Buntings, warblers and Orioles. I … Continue reading
Our lower pool is rocky and shallow below Sterling Il. You need a jet drive on the lower pool around sterling when the river is at normal level or below, around 4000 fps is the line, below that and stay off the lower pool unless you have a jet drive like I do. But when the water is that low fishing is pretty slow anyways. Otherwise you have to know where the channel is further down river or on other pools.
They do need to dredge the Rock Falls ramp area. When using the river around here one needs to watch river levels closely. The Sinnissippi pool doesn’t change levels as much, but it needs to be up to get into any backwaters. If they would put a larger tube in at the bayou opening that would open up to small boats & kayaks and open a lot of new fishing waters. I think it can be done without being major.
Once you get below rt 30 bridge, there is deeper water, but there are some shallow rock areas to watch out for. Once you get up from the Nelson RR bridge, it’s deeper water all the way to the dam at Dixon. The pools above Dixon can also be shallow and rocky but most of the pools have deep enough water to get around. River Gauges
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I got out on the Rock, it was slow but it’s always fun to get out. There is female Bald Eagle that was all wet from fighting a large fish. The male isn’t hanging around much or I keep missing … Continue reading
