I saw a bald eagle this morning sitting on the corner of the street.

polkfarmboy

Came out of my drive this morning to get some breakfast and I drove down the street. Well at the corner I saw this huge bald eagle, it looked like it was over 2 feet tall! When I seen it I thought it was a fake bird that some one had put on their garden as it was just so massive and sitting there. I stopped and rolled my window down to see if it was real and all of a sudden it just spreaded out huge wings and took off and then I noticed this rabbit all bloody. It must have been sitting on it as it was all limp and bloody and it was just hanging from its claws. Crazy and a great thing to see and never been so close to one before as I was like 3 feet away from it.

WagnerRC

Check out this story from today. http://mynorthwest.com/11/2944869/Truck-driver-saves-bald-eagle-after-early-morning-collision

We have eagles all over here. love it

WagnerRC

This is in my side yard.

motorhead43026

We see bald eagles in my neighborhood on occasion. I live 10 minutes from downtown Columbus, OH. There is an abandoned rock quarry lots of woods and the Scioto river behind my subdivision. They like to hang out in the area.

polkfarmboy

Thats really sad about the one getting hit by the truck. The only other time I saw blad eagles was about 20 yrs ago before today.

mhardy6647

They (and most of the other big raptors) have made a tremendous comeback in the decades since DDT was banned in the US. They're beautiful birds, but they actually are just as happy to scavenge or steal food rather than hunt it themselves! They also have a rather unimpressive call -- on TV and in movies, one typically hears the dubbed-in call of the red-tailed hawk in place of the Bald Eagle's somewhat wimpy screech.

They (bald eagles) are relatively common in our vicinity (along the Connecticut river, which is a couple of miles from here as the eagle flies), but we haven't seen one in or over they yard. We did have a juvenile golden hawk try to take a turkey out back a couple of springs ago -- that was a very unusual sighting (but Mrs. H knows her birds). Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of it.

EDIT: I take that back: I did see one fly over one day last fall when I was out cuttin' the grass :-P (or some kind of yard work). That one I did get some photos of (although not particularly good ones)... I had some good views of it, but by the time I got the camera on it, it was up pretty high. I had to crop extensively to get a couple of even barely respectable photos (and the light wasn't great).


another backyard bird by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

Eagles on the wing are described as looking like "a flying ironing board" :- ) Their wings are long and relatively broad (i.e., they have a pretty deep chord) -- they're pretty easy to differentiate from most hawks, from ospreys (which have crooked wings) and vultures (which have a pronounced dihedral angle to their wings when soaring).

pitdogg2

We have Falcons that nest in our downtown nothing like watching one just BLAST a pigeon out of the air. They just come out of no where and POOOF feathers are everywhere falling to the gound....ITS AWESOME.

motorhead43026

Eagle standing on the corner, but not bald.

mhardy6647

That was a funny afternoon, come to think of it -- as this bird was buzzin' me, too...


backyard bird by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

backyard bird2 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

mhardy6647

motorhead43026 wrote: »

Eagle standing on the corner, but not bald.

:- P

But, but... wouldn't that be Jackson Browne? Given that he wrote the song...

https://youtu.be/FMA3lIeqV8M

motorhead43026

A technicality just go with it....lol.

Mikey081057

That's not a bird it's a Hornet

Mikey081057

And there's a girl my lord in a flatbed Ford Slowin' down to take a look at me

mhardy6647

motorhead43026 wrote: »

A technicality just go with it....lol.

Good point.
I'll take my cue from Sen. Blutarsky.

https://youtu.be/q7vtWB4owdE

mhardy6647

Eagle, Hornet -- all them AMC products look alike to me...

westmassguy

We have a few nesting down here by the Connecticut River, and a few big a** hawks that hang out at the Stop and Shop in my town.

mhardy6647

When we moved to Massachusetts (1991) one could see a few eagles that wintered out on an island in the middle of the (very large) Quabbin Reservoir in the middle of the state. A spotting scope was required. Seeing an eagle in MA even in 1991 was an uncommon occurrence.

Nowadays, they're not at all hard to find across the state.

By all accounts, the pattern up here in NH and presumably also VT has been similar.

An amazing comeback.

polk500

I see a few up here in North Western Alberta, But I was Salmon Fishing on the west coast last summer close to the Alaskan Border and we would see ten, fifteen every day. Pretty cool looking bird.

Cheers

mhardy6647

Benjamin Franklin, it is said, lobbied for the wild turkey, as opposed to the bald eagle, to be the avian symbol of America. Believe it or not, that wouldn't have been a bad choice, either! (at least, when they're showin' off for the ladies) :- )

DSC_1334 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

Fortunately, turkeys have made quite a comeback in the Northeastern US as well -- but that was at least partially due to aggressive reintroduction programs, as I understand it.

018 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

Mikey081057

Quite a few eagles down here in SW FL...Lotsa birds of prey. Osprey, hawks, owls, baldies, kestrels, kites and vultures... there are supposedly falcons but i haven't seen one yet.

mhardy6647

Peregrines are not uncommon in places up here in New England (in Boston, for example). They like to nest on tall buildings and they enjoy nomming pigeons :- )

No falcons here -- we get kestrels, though. In fact, we saw our first kestrel of he season out back a few days ago.

here's one from last year...

DSC_3470 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

He (or she) was enjoying the birdie-snacks at our kestrel feeders ;- )

DSC_3467 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

Mikey081057

Here is link to a N Fort Myers eagle cam

http://dickpritchettrealestate.com/eagle-feed.html#

mhardy6647

You should see what I used to do to essay questions on exams...

tonyb

We even have Bald Eagles out in the burbs of Chicago along the Fox river. A welcome sight for such a majestic bird.

Now that frickin' Blue Heron that visits my pond 3 times a day looking for a snack, I can choke the sh@t out of easily.

mhardy6647

Yeah, I hear you -- I am thinking hard about putting in an ornamental pond here this year... but I know if I put any goldfish or koi in it, they'd get nommed.

GBH by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

mrbiron

mhardy6647 wrote: »

When we moved to Massachusetts (1991) one could see a few eagles that wintered out on an island in the middle of the (very large) Quabbin Reservoir in the middle of the state. A spotting scope was required. Seeing an eagle in MA even in 1991 was an uncommon occurrence.

I spent a LOT of time, growing up at the Quabbin around that say time frame through to 2000 growing up in Palmer. It was the only place that i had seen Bald Eagles in the wild. After that, you are correct that spottings have been slightly more frequent.

I guess our view was better as we were usually in a boat fishing for lakers 75' down.
Nothing like seeing an eagle snatch a laker while you catch absolutely nothing except maybe an old house.

tonyb

Yeah Mark, that's that Pterodactyl looking MF'er. You can put in a pond you just need to make it unwelcome for them. Make a rocky shore line, they don't like to walk on rocks. Don't give them a place to stand either in the pond. They can stand in up to 2 ft. of water so the pond has to be deep enough and the fish need a place to hide like a piece of pipe at the bottom. A fountain in the pond helps too as they don't like to get their heads wet. Definitely a bird with some OCD issues.

You can always put netting over it too, but that takes away from the allure of a pond imho anyway.

pitdogg2

mhardy6647 wrote: »

Eagle standing on the corner, but not bald.
But, but... wouldn't that be Jackson Browne? Given that he wrote the song...

Well the 4 hour Eagle's special i seen on CNN, Jackson Brown gave all the credit to Glen Frey as he said he was so stuck on lyrics and brought to Glen and Glen just rattled off the entire song. Jackson said he was so amazed at Glens ability to do stuff like that.

mhardy6647

... or piranha in the pond, I suppose.

pitdogg2

tonyb wrote: »

Yeah Mark, that's that Pterodactyl looking MF'er. You can put in a pond you just need to make it unwelcome for them. Make a rocky shore line, they don't like to walk on rocks.

not true they are all over my rocky stream I fish, Trust me when i say you do not want to be under one when they p.o.o.p. it like a gallon of white paint.

really P.O.O.P is censored:(

Moose68Bash

mhardy6647 wrote: »

... or piranha in the pond, I suppose.

In New Hampshire?

Guess you could keep them in the bath tub from October to May.