Successful Eagle Watch & Cabin Fever Day Feb. 13 in Guttenberg
Matt Meadows, an ice carver with over 25 years experience, fused two blocks of ice together to create this life-sized bald eagle. (Press photo by Molly Moser)
Luke Hart of the RARE Group shared Reggie the Great Horned Owl with over 40 enraptured audience members during a presentation last weekend. (Press photo by Molly Moser)
By Molly Moser
Nearly 100 people attended Guttenberg’s annual Eagle Watch & Cabin Fever Day, held in the Marina Visitor Center on Saturday, Feb. 13. An ice carving demonstration, chili cook off, and raptor presentation were the highlights of the day, supplemented by games and environmental education for children and adults. The event was organized by Guttenberg Development and Tourism (soon to be known as Guttenberg Chamber of Commerce) and co-sponsored by Divine Current Massage and Natural Gifts.
The entertainment began at 11 a.m. with seven varieties of homemade chili submitted for tasting. They ranged from traditional meat-and-bean recipes to Caribbean, chipotle, and white chicken creations made by area cooks – some of whom even used venison in their formulas.
After dozens of votes were tallied, bowl-and-spoon trophies in bronze, silver, and gold were awarded to Tom Augustyn, Ray Black, and Madison Moser, respectively. Ten-year-old Moser, daughter of Perry Moser of Dubuque, recreated her dad’s prize-winning white chicken chili from the 2015 cook off. This was her first time making chili. “First we put olive oil on the bottom of the pans, then cooked the chicken, and we had to put lots of spices in,” she said, listing all of the components of the chili but one, the secret ingredient. “I’m going to take my trophy to school.”
Moser was among those who participated in a Siberian Scavenger Hunt, which led eagle watchers all around Guttenberg looking for photos of icicles, animal tracks in the snow, the Guttenberg logo, and much more. Other activities for children included coloring and snow painting with colored water in spray bottles.
For those who preferred to stay indoors, professional ice carver Matt Meadows of Bettendorf worked right outside the large windows of the visitor center against a backdrop of blue skies and icy waters. Meadows learned ice carving from Dawson List, a member of the American Olympic ice carving team, while living on the Gulf Coast. He moved north after Hurricane Katrina and brought his skills with him.
Before beginning his demonstration, Meadows described his tools and process to viewers. “Today is too cold to carve ice,” he explained, noting that below 20 degrees ice gets brittle and can react negatively to warmth from a chainsaw. Even so, the experienced carver was successful in his attempt to find a life-sized eagle in flight in a 350-pound block of ice.
KCRG sent a camera crew to the event, and the Dubuque County Conservation Board supplied free camping passes and owl talons, cross-sectioned bird bones, muskrat and otter pelts, and the wings of a Cooper’s Hawk for examination by visitors. A poster depicting true wingspans of Iowa’s birds of prey allowed people to compare their own reach to that of these powerful hunters. The Iowa DNR provided fishing guides, buttons, and measuring devices.
The highlight of the day for many was the live raptor presentation by the RARE Group of Iowa City. Luke Hart of RARE and Joan Schnabel of Raptology amazed the audience with a vulture and a great horned owl. Both birds rescued by Schnabel and kept calm with over 40 sets of human eyes on them.
“There’s really something cool about seeing birds of prey up close and personal,” said Guttenberg resident Luke Hoffman, who admitted the raptor presentation is always his favorite part of Eagle Watch & Cabin Fever Day. Audience members learned that wild raptors have a very high mortality rate, with 60-70% of birds dead before their first birthdays. Like many raptors, vultures are subject to lead poisoning – which can occur when deer are field-dressed or are not tracked after being shot. Schnabel explained that other poisons, like anthrax, are no longer poisonous after being filtered through a vulture’s digestive system. A typical vulture weighs 4-5 pounds, mates for life, and uses its sense of smell to hunt.
Great horned owls, on the other hand, rely on keen hearing to triangulate the location of their next meal. “If I was a great horned owl, my ears would be the size of grapefruits,” explained Hart, “And they would be asymmetrical; one placed higher and one placed lower on my head.” Great horned owls also weight about 4.5 pounds, and can open and close their pupils at will.
The bald eagles of the region received their invitations to the event as well. While only a few took flight, many white caps were spotted perched in trees across the river throughout the day.
