If you drove down to Lock and Dam 14 on a random Saturday last winter, how many eagles did you see? It depended almost entirely on which Saturday you picked. Across the season the count below the dam ran anywhere from four birds to thirty-five.
The usual advice says eagle season runs from mid-December through early March. That's true for the river as a whole. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gives that same range on its eagle-watching page. Right outside Le Claire, though, the Corps' own weekly numbers point to something tighter. Each winter the big gathering below Lock and Dam 14 lands in one or two weeks. Last winter, the peak arrived during the coldest stretch on the record.
Three winters, one short spike each
Every Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. in winter, the Corps' Rock Island District counts eagles at its locks and dams and posts the results for anyone to see. Lock and Dam 14 is listed under Pleasant Valley, just downstream of Le Claire. Here's what the highest counts there looked like in recent seasons:
- Winter 2022–23: 64 eagles on Feb. 1, 2023, down to 25 a week later
- Winter 2023–24: 94 eagles on Jan. 17, 2024, between weeks of 13 and 16
- Winter 2025–26: 35 eagles on Jan. 28, 2026, the high point of the reported weeks
The 2023–24 season shows the pattern most clearly. The count went 3 on Jan. 3, then 13, then 94, then 16, then 6 by Jan. 31. Nearly every eagle the Corps recorded at the dam that winter showed up on a single Wednesday. Go the week before or the week after and you'd have seen a fraction of them.
The peak week also moves around. It fell in mid-January in one season, late January in another and the first day of February in a third. A date circled on the calendar can't reliably catch it.
Last winter's thermometer column
The current 2025–26 table adds a temperature reading next to every count, so you can compare the birds with the weather. Here's the full Lock and Dam 14 record for the season:
| Wednesday count | Adults | Juveniles | Total | Temperature °F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec. 10, 2025 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 33 |
| Dec. 17, 2025 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 35 |
| Dec. 31, 2025 | No report | |||
| Jan. 7, 2026 | No report | |||
| Jan. 14, 2026 | 8 | 5 | 13 | 26 |
| Jan. 21, 2026 | No report | |||
| Jan. 28, 2026 | 26 | 9 | 35 | 9 |
| Feb. 4, 2026 | 17 | 10 | 27 | 13 |
| Feb. 11, 2026 | No report | |||
| Feb. 18, 2026 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 55 |
| Feb. 25, 2026 | No report |
The two biggest counts came on the two coldest mornings, 9 and 13 degrees. On Feb. 18 the reading was 55 degrees and the count fell to five. Lock and Dam 15 in Rock Island, the next dam down, follows the same curve. It counted 43 eagles at 9 degrees on Jan. 28 and 47 at 7 degrees on Feb. 4, then just 8 at 51 degrees on Feb. 18.
The Corps explains why the birds gather at the dams in the first place. Turbulent water below a dam stays open and delivers "a smorgasbord of stunned fish." Visit LeClaire's eagle-viewing page says the eagles gather on the south side of Lock and Dam 14 as ice forms. That fits the temperature column. The colder it gets, the more of the river freezes over, and the more birds crowd into the open water below the dam. The older Corps reports don't record temperatures, so the link to cold rests on a single winter of side-by-side data.
What the blank weeks hide
The "no report" rows matter for reading these numbers. Lock and Dam 14 skipped five Wednesdays in 2025–26, including Jan. 21. That same day, Lock and Dam 15 posted its season high of 55 eagles at 20 degrees. The real peak at Lock and Dam 14 may have come on a Wednesday nobody counted, so 35 is best read as the highest reported number. In the 2024–25 season, the dam has counts for only three weeks, topping out at 11 on Jan. 8, 2025, followed by blanks through Feb. 19.
That's why it helps to check both dams. When Lock and Dam 14 skips a week, the Lock and Dam 15 count still shows whether the river is filling up.
Reading the Wednesday count yourself
The full table is public on the Corps' eagle-watching page, and you can sort it by date or by site. In past seasons the Lock and Dam 14 counts started in the first half of December. A simple routine for this winter:
- Sort by site and find Lock and Dam 14, Pleasant Valley. Look at Lock and Dam 15, Rock Island, right next to it.
- Watch for a jump between weeks. In the seasons above, the climb went from roughly a dozen birds to several dozen in a single week. Going from 13 to 35, or 13 to 94, is the signal.
- Check the temperature column. Last winter, single-digit and low-teens mornings lined up with the biggest counts.
- Go soon after a jump. In both 2023–24 and 2025–26, the count fell to single digits within two to three weeks of the high.
- Treat a warm spell as the end of the run. The Corps notes that many eagles head back north to Minnesota, Wisconsin and Canada as warm weather arrives.
Where to stand once the number jumps
The Corps lists the Lock and Dam 14 / Smith's Island Recreation Area as an eagle-watching site. It includes a 1.5-mile nature trail just upstream of the lock. Visit Quad Cities lists the lock at 25549 182nd St. in Pleasant Valley. The Nature Conservancy's Lock and Dam No. 14 Preserve is open to the public just below the dam. Its directions say to take Z30 south from I-80 to Highway 67, then go east a short distance. For gate and access conditions before you go, the Corps keeps a recreation area status page.
On a peak morning, the best manners are also the best way to keep the eagles in view. Visit Quad Cities asks viewers not to approach resting eagles and to watch from inside or right next to a vehicle so the birds don't take flight.
When the Lock and Dam 15 count runs higher, as it did on Jan. 21, the Corps' Mississippi River Visitor Center in Rock Island is the indoor backup. It's open Tuesday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Because it sits on the Rock Island Arsenal, visitors first need a pass from the Arsenal's Visitor Welcome Center at 23 Prospect Drive in Moline. Since it's closed on weekends, it works best for a weekday visit.
The dates already on the winter calendar
Christmas in LeClaire is on the books for Dec. 4–6, 2026. That's about when the first eagle counts have come in during recent winters, usually in the low single digits.
Quad City Bald Eagle Days returns Jan. 8–10, 2027, at the QCCA Expo Center. Hours are Friday 4 to 8 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to All About Birds. On the calendar, that's about a week earlier in January than the Jan. 17 spike in 2024, and nearly three weeks earlier than last winter's Jan. 28 reported high at Lock and Dam 14. It's a good weekend for the show, and the busiest days at the dam may come later.
Last winter's LeClaire Eagle Fest ran Jan. 17–18, 2026, with Riverboat Twilight as title sponsor. Saturday paired eagle watching along the river with ice carving at Aunt Hattie's Fanciful Emporium, 102 S. Cody Road. Sunday moved to the Celebration Center at 229 N. Cody Road, where Corps spotting scopes were set up, with more ice carving at Mississippi River Distilling Company, 303 N. Cody Road. That weekend fell between the 13 birds counted on Jan. 14 and the 35 on Jan. 28. The 2027 festival dates haven't been posted yet, so Visit LeClaire's festival page is the one to bookmark.
For warming up after a cold morning at the dam, Goldie's Deli opened in February on the lower level of Riverview Roadhouse, 701 N. Cody Road. The Quad-City Times described it as a river-view delicatessen built around freshly sliced sandwich ingredients. For something quicker on the highway side of town, the Culver's at 949 Mississippi View Court was scheduled to open on Aug. 10, 2026, according to the Quad Cities Business Journal.
Our agents at Rainmaker Collective keep an eye on the river all winter, and we're happy to share which Wednesday count got us out the door. If you'd like a heads-up when the Lock and Dam 14 numbers start climbing this season, contact us and we'll let you know.
