Just 45 minutes from St. Charles, Grafton, Illinois is home to the Bald Eagles annual migration. Tourists who come to see the eagles are a big part of Grafton’s business.
The Bald Eagle has been migrating to areas along the Mississippi for as long as their home waters in the north have been freezing. Approximately two-thousand eagles migrate to the Middle Mississippi River Valley each year from central Canada and the Great Lake states.
Every year, tourists travel to Grafton hoping to catch a glimpse of an eagle or two in the trees. Many Grafton businesses offer binoculars to eagle watchers as well as dining and merchandise specials.
The eagles can be spotted in Grafton until March when they will return north. The Mississippi River Valley region is the second largest for eagle migration in the United States, followed only by the Klamath Basin area of southern Oregon and northern California.
LUTV Reporter Killian Walsh.