Bald Eagles Are Back. And They Want to Eat Your Pets.

[douglas9]

With an 8-foot wingspan and a distinctive snowy-white head, America’s national emblem conjures feelings of patriotism and reverence.

“You’re in awe every time you see one,” says Jeanine Pesce, who recently moved from New Jersey to British Columbia and now sees the raptors almost daily. “Their physicality and presence is so profound you feel a need to pay homage to them.”

But Ms. Pesce, who owns a consulting agency, has had to explain some National Geographic-worthy encounters to her 5-year-old daughter. “One day I watched an eagle drag a Canadian goose back and forth across rocks for hours,” she says. “I was told that’s how they tenderize their meat.”

It wasn’t long ago that birdwatchers considered the odds of a bald eagle sighting just this side of a unicorn sighting. Through conservation efforts and the banning of chemicals like DDT, the population recovered to numbers that warranted the bird’s removal from the endangered species list in 2007. A recent report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department found that numbers have quadrupled to more than 316,000 in 2019, from 72,000 in 2009.


https://www.wsj.com/articles/bald-eagle-population-endangered-pets-vancouver-11621012685?mod=djemalertNEWS

[MiHale]

1. Quite a few around me in Michigan...

Interesting fact...they DON’T make the sound everyone thinks.

https://www.treehugger.com/you-know-call-bald-eagle-you-hear-tv-thats-not-bald-eagle-4864532

You may think you're familiar with the high, shrill scream of the bald eagle. After all, you've watched television and movies. You've seen them sweep across the screen while making that mighty call. Even if you live nowhere near bald eagles, you may hear what you think is their call while out on the hiking trail or even in an urban park. In fact, if you live nowhere near bald eagles you're more likely to mistake the sound you hear for their call, since you never get to hear their real call.

You see, whenever you watch a gorgeous bald eagle soar across the television screen and you hear its familiar call, what you're really hearing is the call of the red-tailed hawk.

[Dr. Shepper]

4. True. Theirs is more of a chipping sound

[Cicada]

2. In walks in Sierra Nevada I've had stare downs with them

They sit at the top of a tree watching my two standard poodles, and me. At times we’ve had staring matches where I try to make clear that I’ll come right at them. It seems to work, no attacks so far.

[hlthe2b]

3. December - February they mate at Fossil Creek Reservoir in Fort Collins, CO.

There is a photography club dedicated to capturing images. I see all types of raptors, but these are both incredible and one that I'd prefer to stay in its lane. Gorgeous though. Eagles mate for life and can live up to 30 years.

https://fcdcc.com/wildlife-sig/bald-eagles.html



But even without the eagles, if you have small pets or care about wild rabbits, precautions are necessary. Hawks and Owls will take a lot of them out.

[2naSalit]

5. I'm spoiled...

I see at least one nearly every day, if I go anywhere I will surely see more than that. They are fantastic to watch. I like the webcams watching certain nests around the country. Before I watched those, I never saw an eagle sleeping or the process of bringing up a clutch of young ones. It's fascinating, how else could you ever see that?

I'm glad that their populations are recoved and thriving, it's one of the great successes of the ESA that we can point to and to show that it works. Unfortunately that only seems to be true for the species that everybody can agree on saving, so many are controversial due to their upsetting the machinations of capitalism.

[PJMcK]

6. We have a pair of eagles living on the DelawarwRiver with us

It’s hard to say they live on our land even though we own it because the wildlife around us commands the terrain.

There are two eagles who live above the river near our deck. They are magnificent! Watching their afternoon hunt has become one of our favorite pastimes during the pandemic.

They’re gorgeous but frightening.

[MuseRider]

7. I am seeing them more and more.

I longed to see one, all my life I longed to but did not until I took a trip to the NW. I was so excited. I took care of a pair of Goldens when I worked at the zoo but had to see a Bald Eagle.

Yes they are doing well, over the last 20 years at my farm I have gone from seeing my first one in Kansas to seeing them a lot. I have a big pond, maybe 3 acres, as my front yard and they love to come and sit in the trees around the house and pond then they go off and nest at a nearby lake and I rarely see them until after they are done with raising up the babes. They come back around and the babies are so big already and it is just so much fun to watch them.

Just last week one stopped by and for the very first time I watched it soar over the pond and reach down and come back up with a fish which it promptly ate while sitting in the "vulture tree".

There really is nothing cooler than being out in a pasture and having that huge shadow come over you. You look up and there it is. Love them.

[Pobeka]

8. We have a couple of mating pairs that fly around our neighborhood.

They've been harvesting rabbits and cats for a couple of decades. Coyotes like them too. Lots of missing cat posters over the years...

It's fantastic to see these magnificent birds soaring.

Ospreys are coming on here too -- just had one hunting fish only 50 yards in front of our kayaks a couple of weeks ago, exciting!

[Chainfire]

9. As a child, growing up in North Florida

I never saw an eagle, and hawks were rare as well. Today it is not uncommon to see an eagle feeding on road kill. A pair of Red Tailed Hawks have nested in my back yard for several years. My daughter lives in Anchorage and has two ankle-biter dogs, as far as she is concerned, the eagles are a hazard. Apparently in Anchorage, the eagles are as common as black buzzards are here.

[Ferrets are Cool]

10. Bald eagles are buzzards with better PR agents

not my line, but I love it.

[ShazzieB]

12. They have better PR, but they're also a lot better looking! 😁

Seriously, buzzards are not the lookers of the bird world, lol. Bald eagles, otoh, are majestic and gorgeous. No amount of buzzard PR could ever make up for that.

[elleng]

11. Last year, one attacked incubating osprey in 'my' nest,

resulting in no osprey chicks last year. Fortunately hasn't happened this year.