On January 17 a group of eagle watchers attended our annual breakfast and bald eagle count for the Audubon Society. We totaled 56 mature and immature eagles on our route starting North along the Mississippi River in Calhoun County and ending at Piasa Creek near the Madison County line. This was considerably less than our report of 415 for the same locations in January 2014.  The eagles were just not ready for us. I called Audubon asking why the significant drop. They said that eagles can spread out over large areas rather than congregate in one area like at a dam as we experienced last year. Audubon promised to provide a report with their statewide findings and I will share it with you all when they send it on. We look forward to continue our annual bird counts, which serve to remind us of Sandy Woods,  who was an inspiration for this activity.