I live just up the road in Sauk Rapids and it's not at all uncommon for me to see eagles when I'm kayaking on the Mississippi or some of the local lakes. It's just one of the added benefits of living where we do! ;^)

I remember running along the river in downtown Minneapolis about 10 years ago, looking up, and seeing an eagle gliding above. At the time, people who I recounted this to dismissed it as impossible; bald eagles can't be seen in downtown Minneapolis! It has been nice to see their numbers continue to rebound in the subsequent years, to the point where their presence is far less remarkable.

Mitch, they perch on a tree outside my office, which sits on the Mississippi a few miles down from Mark. But I've never seen swarming before.

Reminds me of last fall. I was standing in line at ValleyFair!, looked up and saw a large flock of birds riding thermals above the parking lot. Couldn't quite figure out what kind of birds they were, since raptors don't seem to be the flocking type of bird. After about 10 minutes, the birds started forming up into V's. And i concluded that they must have been Canadian Geese. I had never heard of/seen them riding thermals before.

Then this summer, the four young falcons by the Ford bridge were pretty cool to watch to. While the Ford bridge reconstruction was going on, the fledglings would perch in the construction cranes stucture in the evening. Also pretty cool. You could walk almost right under them.