Throughout the month of January, many river towns promote organized eagle watches staffed with volunteer interpreters, spotting scopes, and educational displays. The first" EAGLE WATCH" along the Mississippi River was organized in Keokuk, Iowa, in1985. Similar events have become popular all along the river. When a pair of bald eagles nested along the river in Kentucky in 1986, they were the first nesting pair in over forty years!

Other organized "watches" during the year include the tundra swan watches in November. Harry Buck of Alma organized the first swan watch at Rieck's Park north of Alma, Wisconsin (just north of Trempealeau), after he heard a visitor videotaping 4,000 tundra swans saying that "all the noise was coming from these egrets."