I went fossil hunting with my brother, Mike, and his boys, and we also learned about snakes from Dave Palmquist at Whitewater State Park north of Winona, Minn. I got a chance to tour the new islands project in the Brownsville, Minn., area that was undertaken to restore a more natural waterfowl and fish habitat in that part of the river. Bird migrations were already under way, and I saw an incredible number of interesting green herons in the marsh behind La Crosse’s EcoPark. December seemed bound and determined to be one to remember, but not necessarily in a good way. We had two strong winter storm systems move through with plenty of snow, wind and cold temperatures. The massive freeze-up on the river drove the swans and most of the eagles to move on for the year. That meant we missed much of the fish feeding activity we were accustomed to seeing as patches of open water became more and more important to the eagles. I had to search hard to locate a few eagles around Genoa.

Source: West Salem Coulee News