Special guests get bird’s-eye view of couple’s Gillson Park photoshoot

Snow birds are supposed to leave winter in Illinois for warmer climates, but for at least one, Illinois’ winters aren’t so bad.

The American 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 in Wilmette’s Gillson Park on Nov. 23.

John Viramontes was in the lakefront park that Saturday to photograph his daughter, Sophia, and her fiance, Steve Timmreck, for the couple’s wedding invitation. He told The Record that Gillson is Sophia’s “happy spot.”

An already photo-perfect day turned even more-so when Viramontes looked up to see a majestic bird perched in a Gillson tree. Looking around, he saw a second one in a nearby tree. There were two bald eagles resting in Gillson that day.

“The three of us stood in awe admiring the wild animals,” Viramontes wrote in an email. “I started snapping pics of the eagles across several minutes. A pair of casual passersby, an older couple, joined us, instantly becoming enchanted with the spectacle.”

Bald eagle sightings are not rare in Chicagoland, but they aren’t exactly common either. After all, the American bald eagle is a protected species, as designated by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

According to posts in the Chicago Bird Alliance’s Facebook group, bald eagles were spotted on Dec. 2 at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe and on Oct. 5 at the Skokie Lagoons, a local favorite of the iconic American bird.

The State of Illinois Save Our Eagles project estimates 3,100 bald eagles winter across 27 Illinois counties each year. In March, they typically begin returning north, often to Alaska and Canada, to nest.

Viramontes and his daughter considered the Nov. 23 encounter a special one, with Sophia even encouraging her father to incorporate the moment into his wedding speech.

That may not be too big of a challenge, though. After all, as Viramontes pointed out, bald eagles mate for life.

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