Golden eagle

[Richard Flanders]

I was headed for the drill yesterday and there was this young golden eagle sitting in the middle of the road. He seemed able fly only straight down the road about 2' up and in ground effect and kept flying ahead of me and landing. Finally he got a bit weary and just sat there as I pulled up beside him and took some pictures. A young one out trying out his new pilots license I guess. This is definitely the closest I've ever gotten to one in the wild. He let me pass and I went on my way... Hopefully he eventually got some headwind as was able to get above the roadside brush.

[Frank Cronin]

Awesome picture Richard! Thanks for sharing.

Frank

[Dean Romig]

Magnificent bird! I understand they're a tad bigger than the bald eagle and that's impressive.

[Bruce Day]

Up to a six foot wingspan and able to take down a small deer, sheep or goat when grown. Always impressive to see.

[Bill Murphy]

I remember in my pre adolescent years, the Feds mandated that Golden Eagle feathers would be somehow reserved, by law, for use only by native Americans. Apparently, zoos would be recruited to supply Golden Eagle tail feathers to our friends, the Indians. My friends and I who were into Indian lore and fooling with feathers, immediately decided that the Smithsonian National Zoo would not see another Golden Eagle tail feather to be rescued if we had anything to do with it. We made regular trips to the birds of prey enclosure with our long sticks with sticky ends to recover all the eagle feathers that happened to fall. The zoo employees somehow put up with our antics with quite a bit of patience. It was only a few years ago that I surrendered my collection to a friend whose heritage made it more interesting to him than to me.

[Greg Baehman]

Thank you for those great pics Richard, they brought back memories of The Mrs. and I's Big Trip to Alaska in '08. It was a crystal clear day when we were in Denali and witnessed a pair of these magnificent birds with talons locked tumble through the air with Mt. McKinley as a back drop.

As Bruce mentioned these birds will prey on some pretty good sized creatures.

[Fred Preston]

This summer I have been watching a baldy and a couple of juveniles (not yet white headed) almost daily. I'd slip around with my canoe where it is too shallow for other boat traffic and one or more would be scoping the countryside from an old snag. They'd take off when I came within about a hundred yards. Beautiful birds. They live mostly on fish here; especially those they can take from the osprey after he has done the heavy work. No wonder baldy is the symbol of our government.

[John Dallas]

There are a number of YouTube videos of trained Golden Eagles killing wolves in Mongolia. Awesome.
Here's one of them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re644qgnCtw

Enter "Mongolia Golden Eagles" for others.

[Dean Romig]

Fred, there is a pair of bald eagles nesting at my end of the lake in Maine where my place is. Three years ago they had a nest in one of the massive white pines next to my cottage and I was shat upon by a juvenile when the parents were forcing him out of the nest and he was not yet a good flyer.

[Richard Flanders]

I'd highly recommend the Mongolian Youtube videos. They are incredible. I watched a bunch last winter. Good footage of eagles knocking wild goats off cliffs then going and picking them up and gliding away with them. And watching them run a wolf down in full stride and killing them is most impressive.

[Bruce Day]

I've seen them pick up a good size animal like a big jack rabbit bythe hind legs and get airborne immediately so the eagle doesn't get bit. They fly up a way then drop the prey from altitude to kill it. That's likely how the eagle handled that fox. Or maybe that's how we should handle Somali pirates....

[Dave Suponski]

Actually that would work for many types of undesireables....:rolleyes:

[James Brown]

In 1988 I was sheep hunting in Colorado near Pagosa Springs. My guide and I had climbed a bare rocky ridge and were watching a small group of ewes with one lamb. From behind us a big Golden Eagle came over and made a turn above the sheep. Immediately all the ewes circled around the lamb. The eagle made another circle and landed on a F150 size boulder about 40 feet away from and a little above the sheep. The ewes had their rumps to the lamb and were standing their ground. The sheep didn't move and the eagle sat. We watched with binoculars for maybe 20-30 minutes. The eagle finally gave up and went on his/her way. Once the eagle was out of sight the sheep went back to feeding. The picture is of the ewes and lamb when we first saw them. They had moved too far for my camera to take a good picture when the stand off took place.
James

[james van blaricum]

After being in Alaska on a week float trip, we were all loaded up with our gear and floating out of the outback, I had my camera put away and I noticed an eagle sitting in a tree. All of a suddend the eagle took to flight and swooped down and caught a large salmon and carried it back to the nest in the tree top. It was a spactacular sight and as usual the camera was deep in the pack gear.

[Robert Delk]

By actual tests,eagles could only lift about 8 pounds from a dead stop maximum,maybe a bit more with momentum while in flight.This is for golden eagle females,which are quite a bit larger than males.The power of their feet is incredible and has to be felt to really be appreciated, a situation you don't want to be in unless you have very heavy reinforced gloves.

[Matt Grunzweig]

Fantastic looking bird...

[Matt Grunzweig]

Great bird