Brief-Form Post #61: Mid-February OLLI Eagle Safari at Lake Guntersville State Park
I am pleased to add the 61st of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.
Along with fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger, I co-led a University of Alabama in Huntsville OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) Eagle Observation Safari on February 14, 2026, to Alabama’s Lake Guntersville State Park (LGSP). Alabama State Parks Northeast District Naturalist Erik Cline and Park Naturalist Anna Crow presented the program, leading us to two nest observation sites in the Park and another along the Sunset Greenway in Guntersville, AL. Come along to experience the tour stops the 55 of us enjoyed as we spotted ten eagles!
Unfortunately, because my trusty iPhone cannot capture images of eagles nesting or in flight, well enough to post in these photo essays, I’ll rely on you to imagine the magnificent eagle safari stars. I intend to demonstrate the remarkable enthusiasm that a low-intensity, half-day Nature outing within sixty minutes of campus can inspire among mostly retired, eager learners. Count me among them! Moreover, my retirement life mission impels me to employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners (and eagle safari participants) to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship. Thus, through my OLLI engagement, I am reaching and inspiring concerned Earth citizens to observe, understand, feel, and act on behalf of our pale blue orb.
Chris stands under the iconic Park Lodge Bald Eagle on October 23, when we scouted for the February excursion: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2025/12/15/brief-form-post-52-late-october-afternoon-scouting-for-eagles-and-nests-at-lake-guntersville-state-park/
Our group convened in The Gathering Place indoor social hall in the Park campground at lakeside. The Lodge stands ~300 feet above us atop the plateau rim.
The Gathering Place kept us snug and warm as Anna effectively oriented us to eagle biology and ecology.
I recorded this 34-second video from the Gathering Place, viewing the lakeshore, panning the audience, then sweeping out the opposite side, and bringing the lodge down to our level.
Who could ask for a finer place to launch our safari?!
Following lots of questions and eager discussion we drove to our first observation site at the Park cabins, where we aimed our binoculars, spotting scopes, and cameras to an occupied nest 200 yards across the inlet. This first nest, as were all three nests we visited, was firmly anchored in a large-crowned loblolly pine tree. We logged a single mature eagle nest-setting. We spotted no mate nor eaglet.
We showed few signs of cracking under the chilling mid-40s clouds and dampness, although I heard a few grumblings and witnessed signs of efforts to maintain body heat. The eagle sighting kept our attention.
I recorded this 59-second video with narrative as the group anticipated what lies ahead.
The group of seasoned learners paid the price of a chilly, cloudy spring morning for the pleasure of inhaling Nature’s elixir and seeing multiple individuals of a species on the brink of disaster earlier in our lifetime.
Here is my 58-second video of the stop without narrative.
Our second observation point, also along the lakeshore with target nest some 200 yards across the lake rewarded us with six sightings: an adult in the nest, another adult in a nearby tree, two matures in flight and alighting in the nest tree vicinity, and two more flying by above the lake nearer to our shore. That took us to seven. Elation describes our mood.
We retreated to the lodge for lunch and warmth. I’ve visited LGSP many times, never tiring of the special Nature of the place: the lake, her hills, wooded trails, wildlife, wildflowers, seasonal variations, and the embrace of its soothing moods and themes.
I snapped these photos on a May 2025 visit. Afternoon image from the lodge (left) and dawn from the Mabry Overlook, one-quarter mile east of the lodge, still on the rim above the lake.
Following a leisurely lunch, we caravaned to Sunset Drive Greenway in the city of Guntersville. Eagles have maintained and reared young in this unlikely congested location for at least the past eight years. I am standing at least 200 feet from the tree’s base, located within a copse of pine trees beyond the observers.
I admit to decades associating eagles to wild, remote, natural settings, distant from the hustle and bustle of urban life and living…until we lived four years in Alaska. Seeing this 1,000+ pound nest 70-feet up a pine tree between a greenway heavily traveled by walkers, runners, skateboarders, and bicyclists, and a busy roadway, however, still strikes me as surprising. An adult stayed on the nest during our hour on-site. Some in our party had already departed when two adults performed a beautiful fly-by!
John Denver’s The Eagle And The Hawk shaped my earlier impression:
I am the hawk, and there’s blood on my feathers.
But time is still turning, they soon will be dry.
And all those who see me, and all who believe in me
share in the freedom I feel when I fly. Come dance with the west wind and touch on the mountain tops.
Sail o’er the canyons and up to the stars.
And reach for the heavens and hope for the future
and all that we can be, and not what we are.
Alaska opened my eyes and mind to a different bird, a magnificent predator and shameless scavenger, adept at both capturing live game in the wild and dumpster diving in Sitka, Alaska. Eagles are culinary (and nest site) opportunists, at home in both high, rocky cathedrals and the domesticated bustle of Guntersville, Alabama.
I remind you that nothing in Nature is static. Everything changes…every hour of every day across the seasons and over the eons. The same is true of my impressions, knowledge, and wisdom, such as it is. Eagles are just as noble, elegant, persistant, and rich-with-national-symbolic meaningful as ever. Back from near extinction, the eagle exemplifies the human ability to overcome our collective ignorance. As Louis Bromfield repeated, we are capable of changing some corner of our Earth for the better through wisdom, knowledge, and hard work!
A successful venture — ten eagles! My hope is that the OLLI Eagle Safari awakens all of us to our obligation to wisely steward our One Earth.
Closing
I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, this one cut and pasted from above:
My retirement life mission impels me to employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners (and eagle safari participants) to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship. Thus, through my OLLI engagement, I am reaching and inspiring concerned Earth citizens to observe, understand, feel, and act on behalf of our pale blue orb.
Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!
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