Hundreds flock to Runge for Eagle Adventure

Dickerson Park Zoo volunteer Kathy Binkley displays Phoenix, a 34 year-old female bald eagle at Runge Nature Center's Eagle Days Saturday.  (Ken Barnes/News Tribune)
Dickerson Park Zoo volunteer Kathy Binkley displays Phoenix, a 34 year-old female bald eagle at Runge Nature Center's Eagle Days Saturday. (Ken Barnes/News Tribune)


More than 1,100 people arrived in the first hour Saturday morning for Runge Nature Center's Eagle Adventure.

And they just kept coming.

The free, two-fold event offered activities for children, including coloring, mask-making, "eagle claw" fishing, eagle nest building, button-making and a program from Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield.

It also had wild eagle watching at Marion Access on the Missouri River, about 13 miles north of Jefferson City.

The zoo brought two live eagles -- a 35-year-old female bald eagle named Phoenix, and a golden eagle named Aquila -- for programs held inside the center's auditorium.

Zoo staff offered four educational "performances" with the eagles throughout the day in the auditorium, which is limited to 200 people.

Liam Stone, 6, was a member of the first audience to see the live eagle program Saturday morning. He said it was pretty cool. He said he learned that eagles eat fish, and said he had fun.

And when asked if he thought the eagles could carry him away, emphatically said, "No, they cannot!"

Sarah Easton, a naturalist with the Missouri Department of Conservation, said the department was relieved to return to its full program this year, having only done the portion at the access in 2022.

"We're focusing on bald eagles, which are obviously just a beautiful animal," Easton said. "They are easy to identify unless you have a juvenile, because they don't have a bald head."

The bald eagle is a conservation success story, she continued. Not that long ago, it was very rare to see a bald eagle.

"Now, most of these people have seen them in the wild. It was a successful comeback," Easton said. "One of the things we discuss when we talk about bald eagles is DDT, and outlawing DDT and other pesticides which had impacts on bald eagles' eggs."

DDT is a synthetic insecticide created in the 1940s that was widely used to help control typhus, malaria and other insect-born diseases. Scientific evidence soon developed showing DDT's toxicological effects on the environment. It accumulated in food chains and persisted in soil and river sediment.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which formed in 1970, banned DDT in 1972, because of health risks to humans and animals. It was found to interact with birds' calcium metabolism. Populations of large birds like brown pelicans and bald eagles were devastated because their eggs' shells became thin, and when the birds would sit on them, they would crush them.

Habitat loss and over-hunting and over-fishing of prey (game birds and fish) adversely affected the birds.

Education and legislation efforts have contributed to eagles' success stories, Easton said.

She said golden eagles sometimes pass through Missouri, but don't remain as permanent residents. On the other hand, there is a population of bald eagles in Missouri that remain year-round. That population swells during winter, when northern bodies of water that eagles rely on for fish freeze over. Eagles then migrate south.

Hundreds of people waited in line for hours for the Dickerson Park Zoo program Saturday.

Candy Kindrick of Dickerson Park Zoo said its live birds of prey program allows people to see the bird up close. Audience members learn facts about each of the birds of prey, for example, that golden eagles have bigger talons than bald eagles ... and can take down a deer, she said.

The birds, she said, can lift and fly away with something about half their own weight.

Kindrick said the zoo is a rehab center. She said Phoenix arrived at the zoo when she was 6 months old. Pheonix was in a program because she was taken from a nest and raised in a tower in a national forest. Kindrick said in the program, staff members used gloves that looked like eagle beaks or claws and would reach into the nest and feed the fledgling birds.

Once the birds were old enough, they were tagged and released into the wild. Shortly after Phoenix's release, the tag stopped moving. Program personnel thought she had lost the tag. They went to the site and found her there -- still alive, but malnourished and dehydrated.

She was then brought to the zoo. During her recuperation, she essentially became domesticated and was no longer afraid of humans, so she could no longer return to the wild.

Aquila was found in Rogersville, Arkansas. He had apparently tried to attack a coyote that had been captured in a trap and got tangled in a barbed wire fence. Part of one wing was torn off.

It's uncommon for golden eagles to be found in the area, Kindrick said. They typically are west and north of Arkansas.

Derek March, 11, of Fulton, said his family drove down to learn about eagles. He said he was excited for the event.

Sam Reynolds, 8, who attends Blair Oaks Intermediate School, came with his little brother, Matthew, 4, and their father.

"(I'm) hangin' out with my dad," Matthew said.

"We built an eagle nest," Sam said. "Now I'm making a badge, or whatever this is."

  photo  Phoenix, a 34 year-old female bald eagle, was on hand for a program presented by Dickerson Park Zoo at Runge Nature Center's Eagle Days on Saturday. (Ken Barnes/News Tribune)
 
 
  photo  Binita Williams brings out Aquila, a golden eagle, during a Dickerson Park Zoo presentation at Runge Nature Center's Eagle Days Saturday. (Ken Barnes/News Tribune)
 
 
  photo  Runge Nature Center volunteer Bill Kuensting answers kids' questions about eagles Saturday during Eagle Days. (Ken Barnes/News Tribune)
 
 
  photo  Kids make eagle masks at one of the craft tables at Eagle Days at Runge Nature Center. (Ken Barnes/News Tribune)