On a trip to Winona, Minnesota to visit Stacia’s sister, we headed up to Wabasha to visit the National Eagle Center. I had fairly high expectations of the place and those were exceeded wonderfully!
We were greeted immediately by a friendly woman when we entered and throughout our visit everyone we came across was eager to answer our questions or talk freely about the place and its star attractions: eagles.
Bald Eagles are attracted to the Wabasha area year round and especially in winter because the river never freezes there. We saw a pair of adult eagles in a tree across the river.
The National Eagle Center has both Bald Eagles and a Golden Eagle, all of which have been injured and will never be able to return to the wild. They are treated well and provide a perfect way to connect people with nature in educational learning (that never feels like “learning”).
After checking out four of the five eagles they had at the center (the fifth was traveling) we watched an entertaining presentation all about eagles. We even were able to watch a Bald Eagle eat a delectable meal of rabbit!
The presentation was filled with facts about eagles and involved participation of some young audience members and the woman presenting fielded a ton of questions as well. She did a superb job and we highly recommend visitors partake in the showing.
The entire center is filled with displays and interactive exhibits and you can easily spend several hours there. There is also a nice gift shop with of course plenty of eagle paraphernalia.
Me and Stacia had to get our photo taken with one of the Bald Eagles, the one who happens to be on the Minnesota specialty license plate!