Set aside three hours March 23 to join a group search for bald eagles along the Clarion River.

Pack along your binoculars and spotting scopes to the Cook Forest State Park office from 8:30-11:30 a.m. for a driving tour to eagle hotspots along the National Wild & Scenic Clarion River. The park staff says this is the prime time of the year to view bald eagles on their nests and find new nesting sites.

The carpool is likely to be long, and the hiking “aggressive” to get to better viewing areas. Hot chocolate and coffee will be available at the office.

For information, call (814) 744-8407.

Pymatuning State Park’s annual Eagle Weekend is scheduled for March 22-24.

Register to be part of a guided tour of the greater Pymatuning area to see American bald eagles, eagle nests and other birds. Transportation and some meals are included. Cost is $65 per person or $120 per couple.

Events start March 22 at 6 p.m. and end March 24 at 1 p.m.

For information and to preregister, call the park office at (724) 932-3142.

Overnight accommodations are available in the Jamestown cabins for an extra fee; call 888-727-2757 to make reservations.

The free event starts at 8 a.m. at the dam, 6 miles north of Warren on Route 59. You’ll watch for eagles in their natural habitat, fishing the open waters of the Allegheny River in the reservoir or in the Allegheny River.

Presentations on Pennsylvania eagle restoration efforts will go on throughout the day in the visitor center. There are three areas to view birds, and spotting scopes and refreshments will be available.

For information, contact Bill Massa at (814) 723-2568 or mbmassa@atlanticbb.net.

Two juvenile Bald Eagles at Oil Creek State Park usually are willing to pose for photos if you catch them out and about near their haunt at the ice dam on the south end of the park.

Highlights of a weekend gloriously misspent in the out of doors:

• A heron rookery in western Erie County struck me as looking remarkably like a show poodle shaved everywhere but at the joints:

A neighbor who stopped to chat insisted that the eagle nest seen late in the video remains active, but there was no sign of eagles Saturday, and Great Blue Herons perched on the lips of the nest.

• The five ruddy ducks on Presque Isle Bay on Saturday afternoon were pretty cool. The hundreds of blue bills on the 2,500-acre protected propagation area east of the spillway Sunday were cooler yet.
• One of the surest signs of spring around Erie is the reappearance of Presque Isle State Park’s most famous Great Horned Owl:

• Mature bald eagles glided just beyond binocular range Sunday at Pymatuning. Immatures took advantage with a little party on the east bank of the propagation area. There had to be at least a dozen sitting at water’s edge at one point. Late in the day one and then another took wing to the island nearest the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Wildlife Learning Center, getting the stink eye from Canada geese, Double-Breasted Cormorants and at least one Great Blue Heron.