Mississippi wildlife is community treasure

Toward the end of my jog this afternoon I was on the south side of the Franklin Avenue Bridge heading back into the neighborhood. Looking out over the water I was startled to see a bald eagle in mid air over the river about 15 yards out from the bridge and about at my eye level. I stopped and watched as the eagle hovered in one spot, fluttering its wings to hold herself in the air while she peered down at the river.

Then, tucking her wings, she plummeted onto the river’s surface, disappeared for a moment in the splash of water, and then beat her way back into the air with a fish held in her talons. I know we have many serious environmental, economic, political, etc., problems to solve. But today I feel the gift of living in Minneapolis and especially in Seward neighborhood beside the Mississippi River Gorge where bald eagles can startle me out of my routine and provide a wake-up call to the wildlife around me.

David Gagne