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OT finally saw one

R

rrlund

Well-known Member
I've been hearing for several years now,talk of people seeing bald eagles. As much as I'm out and around,I'd never seen one until today. I was hauling bales and pulled out behind the barn to unload. There was one sitting on the ground out in the pasture about 100 yards away. That thing was huge. Big as a good sized calf. After I'd watched it for about five minutes,it raised up,spread it's wings and flew away. I have a few fall calving cows and the last one calved a week ago. That eagle was sitting right where she'd cleaned.
You'll have to ask an Indian about any symbolism,but it just didn't seem quite right to me to see the national bird crouched on the ground in a field of cow patties,eating rancid afterbirth,but maybe that's just me.
 
You think a bald eagle is big, You should see a golden eagle. Much bigger, can pick up a young lamb easily. We have a very few goldens here, bald eagles are common.
 
Yeah they are huge and basically scavengers looking for an easy meal.
Here is a pic of two of them on a tower at my work.
a25518.jpg
 
its the external_link administration that causing the american eagle to eat spoils. just wait till the medical plan kicks in.. you can just take two aspirins and die in the morning... courtesy of your gobbermint...
 
They're an awsome sight and they're making somewhat of a comeback here. Where my farm is on the plains of NW Iowa we might see a stray eagle once every couple of years and up until five years ago we never saw one. I had never even seen one until five years ago. They are more common along a river ten miles north of here but up until a few years ago they did'nt have any either. Jim
 
I saw three at Mallows Bay on the Potomac. One left to swap knots with an osprey. These are the remaining two, but they did not suffer fools and left before I got close.

This was my first and last time seeing Bald Eagles. Here"s to next year!

Aaron
DSCN1283.jpg
 
They've always done well in the Pacific Northwest, although they weren't common outside the wilderness until 15 or so years ago. I think its the salmon- their (and my) favorite food. When I was a loan officer for Production Credit in the '70's, I did a "field visit" to a farmer on the Skokomish River in western Washington- he took me along the river, and we counted 26 bald eagles.

Now, they are pretty much everywhere. Big nests in the tops of big trees. It still gives you kind of a rush to see them, even though you know they're around.
 
I see them so often i allmost quit looking.I can see one nest from my front window.Around here they are allmost tame they just sit in a tree as you drive by.
 
I"m rrlund"s neighbor about 20 miles north.
We"ve had a few sightings around here from time to time, just passin" thru, I"m sure.
 
Quite a few here in northern NY--buddy has a mating pair he can see from his house, which overlooks a river. They're mainly scavengers, which, if I remember, was one reason Ben Franklin wanted to make the wild turkey the national bird instead.
 
Should come to SE Iowa. There are dozens if not hundreds of them along the Mississippi. Beautiful birds to watch. I'm too young to remember them almost extinct, but it's great to see them flying around.
AaronSEIA
 
I live in southern In. I have heard of some people seeing them hear for a couple years. I knew that at Hovey lake about 40 miles west of me they released some several years ago but still had never seen one except in a picture. This fall as I am sittin in the 9870 cuttin beans I look up and see a huge bird. I knew it was to big to be a hawk or buzzerd. Got a bit closer over me and sure enuff it was a bald eagle. He flew over a good while and then was outa sight. I was so excited to see it that i sounded like a little kid comin home from show and tell when I got home that nite and was tellin the wife about it. I seen it the next day on the way back to the field but havent seen it since.
 
Benjamin Franklin fought the selection of the bald eagle as the national bird because it was a scavenger that would eat anything alive, dead, or rotten.

His choice for the national bird? The proud, strutting Turkey.
 
I have them all over my farm, every Case tractor and implements are full of them! I saw my first live eagle in sw Mn in 1986. Not uncommon to see them in the spring now a days. Yes they are huge, for the last 5 years we have also been seing turkey buzzards, we never had them when I was a kid. We also never had oppossums now they are common, hoped the cold would thin them out but they are surviving. We had 4 river otters in our stock pond in 09, never saw one before.
 
We see a lot of eagles here in the Mission Valley when calving starts. They clean up the afterbirth. They head over to the river after calving season. I guess we have big calves here because I never saw as big as a new born calf.
 
I live 1000 feet from the Mississippi. I get to see them for many months/yr. They are fantastic.
Though they will scavenge, they prefer to nab animals that fail to watch the sky. Having seen them nail good sized fish and snakes as quick as snapping your fingers, it is solidly a fine symbol of USA. Jim
 
There were two hanging out about 3 miles south of belding 2 years ago now we see one every now and again.
 
Here in Southern Illinois, they will close off part of the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge if a bald eagle is nesting in the area.

Just south of Aurora Kentucky there's a bridge that crosses Kentucky Lake. A bald eagle has nested on top of the truss on the southwest corner of the bridge for at least the last two years. They just sit up there and watch the traffic go under them.

We've never had a nest right here on the farm, but the next farm east has had one.

Paul
 
Live on the Cumberland River or Lake Barkley and farm right next to Cross Creek Natiolnal wildlife refuge.
Not uncommon to see them flying around. I can,t say I have ever seen one eating something dead like the busards do but sure see them catching a lot of fish and ever now and then a duck. Have a nesting tree on the refuge that we can actually see from our kitchen window ( with binoculars). They come back to the same nest every year.
 
you got that right, seen one eating a dead cow once. kept all the other buzzards at bay till it had all it wanted.
 
Here in NW WI see bald eagles all the time and this summer saw a pair of golden eagles picking up mice after I baled hay. Once watched a bald eagle pickoff a cat in the pasture about 200 feet from the barn. Ripped it apart right there, I got picture of it flying away with the inards trailing behind.
 
Saw one while riding my bicycle threw a golf course in Florida when I was about 15. Stopped to look at it, some guy driving past stopped and asked me what I was looking at, so I pointed to the bald eagle. He said people would give there eye tooth to see that. I'll always remember that.
 
I used to haul scrap iron out of Electrolux in Greenville before they moved to Mexico. I don't think that's too far from rrlund. Anyway there were Bald Eagles around the back of there in the trees, and fishing the river. I got to see them dive down and scoop fish out of the water. I always enjoyed watching them. But I have never seen a Golden Eagle.
 
We got two pair of Bald Eagles nesting on Diamond Lake north of White Cloud. Been there for about four years now.
 
The only bald eagle I have ever seen on my property was working on a dead deer that had been hit about a week before on the road. It was in the Summer, and the dead deer was pretty rotten and stinky. The eagle was sure making the magpies mad, as they were too afraid to come close to the deer with the much larger bird there. I watched the "drama" for about half and hour when the eagle flew away, apparently full. I never saw it again. The magpies and coyotes cleaned up the dead deer within a couple of weeks.

I always thought bald eagles were fish eaters, and I have seen film of them pulling fish out of Coeur d'Alene Lake, which is about 10-15 miles from here. But I guess the bald eagles will eat what they find, even if that item happens to be pretty ripe. Kind of lowered my respect for the bald eagle though. That deer was really icky!
 
I live in southern Il. where R45 and I64 cross We have had Bald Eagles for about 5 yrs now. This summer the day after we baled the hay West of our house into big bales there was 4 Eagles sitting on the bales, rabbit and mouse hunting, We couldn't believe how loud they whistled. It was really neat.
 
We have some just north of Indy these days. Never thought as a kid that I would ever see deer in huge numbers, coyotes or Bald Eagles. What next ? Wolves, Black Bears, Cougars ?
 
We used to live near Lake Superior in Minnesota. In the fall you could look up in the sky and see them migrating southward out of Canada. They would be WAAAAYYYY up there in the sky doing long, lazy circles, each circle a little further south. You could see several or more in the sky at any one time.

Here in southern Missouri, we've seen perhaps one or two per year at odd intervals. Once on the way into town there was a big one perched up in a tree. On the way back, of course, it was no longer there. Wish I'd had a camera along for that one.

Christopher
 
Even though there is a colony of them at a lake about 30 miles from our farm, neither James or I had seen one until this spring.

We were working on the equipment shed. I looked up and couldn't believe my eyes. It was pretty high up and circling. I pointed it out to James and grabbed the camera. It was great to see one.

Their numbers have increased to the point they may be taken off the endangered species list.
 
A few years ago I had heard that Indiana had some and was sure that I had been seeing them. But as it turned out, what I was seeing setting on some of my fence posts and stuff were Osprey. They are huge. They have a wing span of about 6 feet and resemble eagles. I've got some big lakes by me and a couple of rivers, and I'm pretty remote. In my case, Osprey.

Mark
 
We have a resident pair near darlington WI. I always get a kick out of the fact of seeing them . Working over the feilds after spreading manure in the winter time here in WI. Yeah very majestic then. I guess you can"t eat fancy all the time you have to slum every now and then.
Bob
 
That is what birds do. Have a look at this one..
Wedge-tailed eagle into your search engine, the meal will indicate where it resides.
 
There are plenty of bald eagles here.I see them when haying. they seem to come to sound of the tractor.Never have been scarce.BS by bunny huggers who think they can count the number of eagles left.Ive seen them in the woods, in orchards,fishing in rivers.I see many while fishing in my boat.Saw one make a dive at a rooster in front of barn years ago.rooster ran into the barn.
 
This thread was interesting reading.....there are a lot of these birds close to my place by the Mississippi River....

If you want to see some amazing video of eagles that are used to catch/hunt/kill DEER and WOLVES, just go to Youtube and type in...

"eagle catches deer/wolves"

These are not "our" American Bald Eagles, but the videos certainly surprised me.

Tim
 
Last spring/late winter I would see them routinely (record was 8) on my way home from work. The Kaskaskia River flooded and was perfect fishing ground for them. This was were State Route 161 crosses the Kaskaskia. Big open flood plain with several small groups of trees for perching. They are an amazing sight!
 
My lifetime high count for one day was 52 Eagles
along the Mississippi river, in Wisconsin, from
Treampealeau, Wi to Prescott, Wi. Thats about
a 100 mile drive.
 
There are several living along the Cass River here in the Thumb of MI. I also aee them quite often at Higgins Lake.

Jerry
 
They are mostly just a good looking vulture, we have lots of them around here, see em daily, very seldom hunting, usually on a car kill, or carcass of some sort, did watch one take down an adult goose a few years back , that was cool!!
 
Are those eagles nests all along 127 up there near Houghton and Higgins Lakes? I've seen a whole bunch of nests on the east side of the road up through there. Thought they might be eagles.
 
Glad we had the camera with us.

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All this talk about eagles reminds me of one of the best satire songs of the '60's- J. Edgar Swoop, on the Mason Williams "Classical Gas" album. Anyone remember it? google j edgar swoop to see lyrics (and maybe listen to it- I didn't go far enough to see if there were any downloads available).
 
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