Organize a trip around bald eagle watching

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Looking for a short getaway with a wildlife theme? Go watch a winter convention of bald eagles, the soaring national symbols that head south to spend the cold months along lakes and rivers where they’re easier to see than usual.

You’ve got time to make plans for visiting the Jan. 26-27 Upper Skagit Bald Eagle Festival — http://tinyurl.com/yor3eo — in the northwest corner of Washington state, between Puget Sound and North Cascades National Park. The schedule includes regional entertainers, demonstrations and bird presentations. How likely are you to see bald eagles? Click on “Eagle County” in the upper left corner of the page for the census results in the area.

Wait until Feb. 15-17 and you can take in the Balde Eagle Festival (the “balde” spelling dates to the 1700s) — http://www.eaglefestival.com/ — in the area of Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River in central Washington.

In the Midwest, stretches of the Mississippi River that remain unfrozen provide numerous gathering places for eagles and watchers. The Mississippi River Project has an outline — http://tinyurl.com/2o7the — of spots and events along the Iowa and Illinois riverbanks. There are more eagle-watching spots in Illinois — http://www.greatriverroad.com/Eagles/eagleViews.htm — including Pere Marquette State Park, Illinois biggest state park, and the Two Rivers National Wildlife Refuge.

Minnesota boasts the highest number of nesting pairs of bald eagles in the 48 contiguous states, with counts of more than 1,300, and some of them spend the winter in the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife Refuge — http://www.fws.gov/midwest/uppermississippiriver/ — stretching from Moline, Ill., up to Wabasha, Minn. The National Eagle Center — http://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/ — based at Wabasha, has sketchy tips under “Where to See Eagles.” Unless you’re driving the 70 miles from Minneapolis-St. Paul, Wabasha — http://www.wabashamn.org/ — has places to stay.