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Figure 6. Some open holes 
were usually present along the 
shoreline of Crooked Slough (D 
in Figure 1). These holes were 
dependent upon the flow of 
warmer water from springs in 
the banks, retarding ice forma- 
tion. Occasionally during the 
winter open water was scattered 
along the entire shoreline in the 
background. The eagles waded 
after fish in these areas. Small 
shad were extremely abundant 
in the open holes; hundreds or 
thousands were present during 
most of the winter. Many were 
dead and others dying, appar- 
ently as a result of the low 
water temperatures. The live 
fish were easy to capture; often 
we reached into the water and 
caught them with our bare 
hands. The white spots in the 
water are dead shad and the 
ripples are caused by shad 
swimming near the surface (see 
arrows). 
Figure 7. Terrain between the River Road (census route) and the main channel of 
the Mississippi was rolling and sparsely forested. A few eagles were usually ob- 
served perched in the trees overlooking the river. Eagles were never concentrated in 
such areas, 
The deciduous forest to the east of the River Road was dense. During the 
early winter we observed a few eagles in the woods. Later in the season the birds 
concentrated along the river except on clear sunny days when they made use of 
the thermals and soared over the countryside. 
