Children sat perched on the edge of their seats, as MaryBeth Garrigan placed a small bowl of dead fish in front of a cage.

Then the creature emerged from its cage and jumped onto a stand on the stage.

Everyone ooh and ahhed at what they had come to see -- a bald eagle.

The National Eagle Center held an hour-long program at the Hormel Nature Center Friday for a crowd that packed the Ruby Ruper Auditorium.

Garrigan, director of the National Eagle Center out of Wabasha, brought Harriet, a bald eagle from NEC and shared information about eagles and other raptors to the packed room.

That more than 100 people attended shows that people are interested in eagles, she said.

"I guess there is excitement with bald eagles," Garrigan said.

Bald eagles were a rare site in Minnesota just 30 years ago. In the 1970s there were less than 50 nesting pairs of eagles left in Minnesota. Now there are more than 600.

"They've seen a tremendous comeback," she said.

The elimination of the chemical DDT, which was used in insecticides, and the concern of groups and individuals led to the comeback.

Eagles in Minnesota tend to live near the Mississippi River, especially in the winter, but can be seen all year round, Garrigan said.

One of the biggest threats to eagles today is lead. Eagles can digest highly acidic substances. Garrigan and her co-workers tried to rescue an eagle who had ingested seven times the lethal limit of lead. The bird died the day after they found it.

Eagles find lead in some fishing lures and in parts of bullets that are left in animal corpses.

"If you guys can do anything to help eagles, use any alternatives to lead products," Garrigan told the crowd.

Don and Sylvia Walker, of Austin, brought their grandchildren, who were visiting from Woodbury to the program after they heard about it on the radio.

Their granddaughters Britta, 9, and Ana Sortland, 5, liked the program.

"I think it was nice how they showed this about the eagle," Britta said.

Alissa Wall, 9, thought the program was interesting.

"It was really neat to be able to see the bald eagle and learn more about it," Alissa said.

Alissa wants to be a veterinarian someday and came to the program as part of a birthday present from a relative.

"I'm interested in things about animals and how they survive and how they kill their prey and things like that," she said.

Cari Quam can be reached at 434-2235 or by e-mail at :mailto:cari.quam@austindailyherald.com