[Stoner4Life]

I distinctly recall the first american bald eagle I ever saw in the wild, it was Oct/'86 and I was motoring along on Route 17 in the Catskill mountain range on my Harley Tour Glide, having delivered an important envelope to IBM in Binghamton NY for a courier service I drove for I was heading back east to White Plains. Just outside of Damascus pacing my speed and direction an eagle appeared about 40 feet off to the right of me flying over a sheer drop off ridge that the highway followed, I slowed down a bit & we were side by side for the longest 10 seconds of my life. I was in my 30's, a hunter and had spent many years covering that same ground while deer and pheasant hunting, I'd never seen a bald eagle, their population was decimated in the 40s through the 70s with the widespread use of DDT which was finally banned in '72 by the US.


Now I live in northern Minnesota (way north) where within a 50 mile radius of me there are no less than 400 mating pair of bald eagle. I fish a very small lake out of town that has a nest in a towering white pine directly above my favorite panfish hole, without fail I find eagle feathers floating or on the shoreline every time I'm out there, of course it's against the law to possess or even handle the feathers so I leave them be. If I'm doing any decent amount of driving in any given week I'll usually see about 2 to 5 (at different times) eagles out gliding over the hay fields looking for any easy meal, I've seen them dive into and fly away from the lake with fish clutched tightly. I've been on the lake ice and watched from 25 feet away as a pair of them devoured a deer carcass. If I were to purposefully go out eagle watching I'd see a dozen any given day. When seen up close the feather detailing and colors really jump out at you in a way that two dimensional images can never compare.

For all the bald eagles I see I have zero pictures to prove it. I live here in MN and so I tend to never take my camera for drives and I'd never take it fishing with me either as replacement value is too high. Eagle spotting has become commonplace for me by now, treated with the familiarity of an everyday occurrence, it still holds my curiosity enough for me to watch if I'm able (i.e. not driving) to see if it will make a kill but I've long ago stop talking about simple sightings to anyone.


The second moment that I'll remember forever was back in April of '95 and my first spring in my log home. My friend Todd and I were talking outside when two shadows appeared on the ground below us, we looked up directly into the sun to see what we thought were two low flying crows, when our eyes adjusted to the glare we were looking at two eagle flying away from us but steadily rising higher and higher, very high....... suddenly one started plummeting toward the ground and the other gave chase when bam! in a split second they'd locked claws and started to tumble, the tumble increasing with speed as they dropped, at a certain safe distance from the ground they broke away from each other and repeated it two more times before moving on. We were in awe, my pal Todd is a master wood caver who's into detailed feather finish work with superb painting abilities. He talks about that to me still today at times.


OK, being as I have no pics and the net is filled with thousands of them so I figured on just picking one I like best.

Roy Toft titled this one Alaska eagle:




Any eagle or bird watchers out there that would like to share?

[JACKtheREFFER]

hello S4L

how are you ??

A while back i spent 5 years in the UP of Michigan, we lived right on lake superior. and had a pair of resident eagles that hunted from trees in our backyard once or twice a week .... one time i came home to both of them eating a deer in my yard but couldn't get the cam out before the took off my truck scared them .....so here is some pics of my eagles










the first two pics where the same day the rest are all different days i have some more ill have to find of him carrying a fish

[Miss Blunted]

They are beautiful birds.

[Stoner4Life]

great pics Jack, well done. This past Thanksgiving we were treated to
the sight of a great horned owl hunting a squirrel in my friends yard.......

the chase lasted about 3-4 mins, it was a very lucky day for the squirrel.

[CANNACO-OP]

wow, great pics...i have saw them in the midwest...just a majestic bird....

[unclefishstick]

lived in AK for years,saw up close battles,mating,watched one snatch a salmon out of the water less than ten feet away.have seen like 200 in the same area.

[shack]

My pics aren't as good as Jacks,but I tried.
Had the dogs out for a walk the other day and saw this eagle sitting in a tree by the neighbors pond.I think he was fishing.
This was the first time I ever saw an eagle(in 45 years).

[Stoner4Life]

Originally Posted by shack

My pics aren't as good as Jacks,but I tried.
Had the dogs out for a walk the other day and saw this eagle sitting in a tree by the neighbors pond.I think he was fishing.
This was the first time I ever saw an eagle(in 45 years).

wtg & lucky enough to have a camera on hand.

[Stoner4Life]

happened to see one adult w/2 adolescent (spotted still) eagles wingin' it along the highway I was driving on yesterday and then this morning I got to delight in the sight of two adults doing the mating ritual (cartwheeling) at a very low altitude.

I have to estimate that they were about 50-60 feet above the ground before they clasped talons, it was very cool to see the one eagle speeding toward (part 2 of that diagram) the other which turns over @ just the right moment to engage each other, maybe only 100 feet away & as stated 50-60 feet up.......






stock photo, surely not mine

[strawbrrygirl]

i am truly lucky there is a couple eagles nest on my land. and during the winter when the river starts to freeze over 3 different eagles fish diectly in front of my house.i feel grateful to see them.there are many birds of prey where i am located at!!!!!!!!!