Both restaurants have a tradition of holding open jam sessions on Wednesday nights. In recent months, our youngest son, Harold, who plays the guitar, has brought his guitar to the De Soto D&B, where he learns more about playing the guitar from the musicians who take the time to mentor him. But not all the participants, who include performers and singers of all ages, take to the “stage” at D&B.

Some of those who seem to be having just as much fun are the “regulars” who come to watch. There’s dancing in the aisles, good-natured small-town chatting and friendly smiles everywhere you look.

George Mills, whose former restaurant was located the Basehor retail center on U.S. Highway 24-40, assures us the new downtown restaurant, which takes up 5,000 square feet, will include a dance floor. We’re looking forward to his grand “re-opening.”

Those of use who attended high school with George remember when he was a performing musician himself. The band he was in was a regular at post-game mixers and school dances.

We’ve had local bald eagle sightings in the past weeks. I saw one swooping toward the field west of VetVax on a cold morning about a month ago. John Shoemaker reported seeing one also. And, my son and I saw a bald eagle in a farm field on County Road 25 southeast of Tonganoxie.

Unlike a decade ago, these sightings now aren’t unusual, said Ray Pierotti, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas.

“Eagles are sort of a conservation success story,” Pierotti said of the white-headed raptor, which was named our nation’s symbol in 1782.

Eagles were listed as an endangered species in 1967. Vulnerable to the agricultural pesticide, DDT, female eagles that ingested it by eating contaminated fish were unable to produce enough calcium to make egg shells strong enough to produce offspring. DDT was banned in 1972.

Since then eagle numbers in the United States have been on the rise, with 791 nesting pairs counted in 1974, and close to 6,000 in 1998.

Pierotti said the eagles that winter in Kansas typically perch in trees along the Kansas River, near Bowersock Dam in Lawrence, Pierotti said.

Eagles are capable of moving hundreds of miles in a day. Pierotti said during a non-migration periods an eagle might typically roam 20 to 30 miles.

“One of the reasons they may be wandering right now is that we’re in sort of a drought,” Pierotti said. “With the water levels lower there may be less fish coming out of the dam.”

Eagles will kill and eat small mammals, and if they come upon a larger piece of carrion — such as a cow or deer that has died — they will eat on that.

Male and female eagles, which have a wingspan of up to eight feet and mate for life, are known for their white heads and dark brown bodies. The immature bald eagles resemble a golden eagle, some of which also winter here, Pierotti said.

In times like these — with talk of war and the tragic deaths of the astronauts in the space shuttle Columbia — it’s good to have some diversions, especially simple ones such as eagle watching or listening to music. Who knows where we are headed as a nation. I know I hope and pray for peace, as many of our readers do.