Golden eagle
 

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.

Awesome picture Richard! Thanks for sharing.

Frank

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.