Special guests can get a bird’s eye view of the couple’s Gillson Park photo shoot

Snowbirds should leave the Illinois winter for warmer climates, but at least for one, Illinois winters aren’t so bad.

The bald eagle is known to stop and winter in Illinois during its annual migration from northern climates. And some locals were treated to a special sighting at Gillson Park in Wilmette on November 23rd.

John Viramontes was at the lakeside park this Saturday to photograph his daughter Sophia and her financier Steve Timmreck for the couple’s wedding invitation. He told The record that Gillson is Sophia’s “happy spot.”

An already photo-perfect day became even more perfect when Viramontes looked up and saw a majestic bird perched in a Gillson tree. As he looked around, he saw a second specimen in a nearby tree. Two bald eagles were roosting in Gillson that day.

“The three of us stood in awe and admired the wild animals,” Viramontes wrote in an email. “I started taking pictures of the eagles for several minutes. A few random passers-by, an older couple, joined us and were immediately fascinated by the spectacle.”

Bald eagle sightings are not uncommon in Chicagoland, but they aren’t exactly common either. Finally, the bald eagle is a protected species as designated by the US Fish & Wildlife Service.

According to posts from the Chicago Bird Alliance Facebook groupBald eagles, a local favorite of the iconic American bird, were spotted at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe on December 2nd and at the Skokie Lagoons on October 5th.

The State of Illinois Save our eagles The project estimates that 3,100 bald eagles winter in 27 Illinois counties each year. In March they typically return north, often to Alaska and Canada, to nest.

Viramontes and his daughter considered the November 23 meeting special, and Sophia even encouraged her father to include the moment in his wedding speech.

However, that shouldn’t be too much of a challenge. After all, as Viramontes pointed out, bald eagles mate for life.

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