DWR hosts eagle viewing for Bald Eagle Month
Bald Eagle Day has been expanded to Bald Eagle Month in Utah, and the Department of Wildlife Resources is celebrating by hosting a bald eagle viewing event in southern Utah Feb. 3 from 8 a.m. to noon. The event will be held at Rush Lake Ranch, located at 9600 N on State Route 130, about 12 miles north of Cedar City.
February is the best time of the year to see one of the country’s most iconic birds. Bald eagles fly to Utah in the winter to find food and escape colder conditions farther north. By the time February arrives, hundreds of eagles are in the state.
In the past, the DWR held the event on a single Saturday in February. Matt Bartley, special events coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources, explained why the agency has expanded its former Bald Eagle Day to include several Saturdays of viewing.
“Holding viewing events at different times, in different parts of the state, will give folks across Utah the best chance to see the greatest number of eagles,” Bartley said. “On the day we held the event, some of the sites had good numbers of eagles while other sites had fewer birds. In some cases, eagles hadn’t arrived at the sites in good numbers yet. In other cases, they’d already come and gone. Holding the event on different Saturdays should increase the chance you see eagles on the day you attend.”
