O.T. - Golden Eagle

Coo-el sighting!

Most widely distributed eagle, but despite the broad distribution is has the good sense to steer clear of FloriDUH. Not like those goofy Bald eagles!

Actually, I shouldn't make fun of Florida -- though it is fun to do so. I love to visit and when it comes to avifauna it is a great place. Swallow-tailed kites may not be as big as Golden Eagles but they are beautiful birds. And it also has another really cool raptor -- the burrowing owl. Very unimpressive from a size standpoint (just a bit larger than an American robin) but active during the day and really fun to watch. And dissing Bald eagles is a joke -- they're impressive birds.

Most raptors are reverse size dimorphic so if it was really large it could have been a big girl off for the hunt.

Have you seen gyrfalcons up there?

@zipman68,

I haven't seen a gyrfalcon. My impression is that those raptors summer in the high arctic, no?

I have seen peregrine falcons frequently. For years peregrines nested in crannies of highrises in downtown Edmonton and Calgary. I once saw a peregrine falcon take a pigeon mid-air over Prince's Island in central Calgary......a real explosion of feathers when the peregrine struck the pigeon. Very impressive sight and to see it in the centre of a city of 1,250,000.............WOW!

Yes. Breeding only really far north. But I thought they were year round throughout Alberta. Have to double check a range map.

Love peregrines hunting on the wing. They do great in cities.

While I'm perfectly aware of why "birdbrain" is an epithet (birds are *stupid*), at the same time, I feel much the same way you do about those magnificent raptors.

Humans have always been drawn to top level predators.

zip, it seems that you are a birdwatcher, as I am. The raptors are my favourites. The most impressive sight of raptors for me is the annual Christmas gathering of bald eagles at Brackendale, near Squamish, north of Vancouver on the British Columbia coast. Some years there will be thousands of bald eagles gathered to gorge on carcasses of salmon.

There is also a spectacular bird sanctuary in the greater Vancouver area at Ladner, between YVR airport and the Robert's Bank coal export terminal. The Reifel Bird Sanctuary is a very important stop-over on the Pacific flyway for birds migrating back and forth between the Arctic and Central/South America. The Fraser River delta is an amazingly rich feeding ground for hundreds of bird species. If you catch 50,000 snow geese grazing in a field near the sanctuary you will be absolutely breathless in awe.

No 5 Orange is an expensive strip club in Vancouver but it is populated by some dangerously attractive dancers and, with some money in your wallet, fun can be had.

A day of bird watching and an evening at No 5 Orange?.......I have done that more than once in my life.

Art, I see golden eagles fairly regularly and they are magnificent. Lots of raptors in my region, big to small. Spotting them makea my long drives more interesting. Common black hawks and Zone-tailed hawks are among the best looking ones.

This golden eagle was circling around looking for a meal and spotted this field mouse. The eagle swooped down and gobbeled up the mouse in one gulp. Then flew back up looking for more.

The mouse pops his head out the eagles butt and sees the ground way down below. He says to the eagle "Hey eagle how high up are we?" The eagle replies "oh we're about 5,000 feet". To that the mouse says "you wouldn't shit me, would you?" :)

I saw scads of bald eagles in Dutch Harbor/Unalaska. It seemed like there was one perched on top of every church spire, telephone pole cannery roof and dumpster. farmerart, you will be particularly interested that there are no cats at all there - the eagles have picked them all off!

Two interesting quotes:

From the EO on USCGC HEALY, "It's not the end of the world, but you can see it from here."

And from the bartender at the Grand Aleutian hotel commenting on the sexual imbalance on the island during crab season (population swells from about 10,000 to 40,000!), "You don't lose your wife here, just your turn." That woman was a stitch!

Several years ago I was on a ship, docked in Prince Rupert, BC and sat watching the Golden Eagles throughout the port area. They were like pigeons in Times Square, only beautiful and graceful. I couldn't get over the proliferation of these magnificent birds.

@Art-You must've read my mind. I was thinking of posting a similar topic but I already post enough OT that I bit my tongue.

I love the primal feeling I get when I watch raptors. Just so awe inspiring.

I'm in awe of the mighty sparrow. Crow after crow gets pecked and driven away by fearless sparrows protecting their nests.

I once knew a stripper who was a Woodpecker. Boy did she love some horsepower.

Mighty Sparrow is a pretty awecome reggae singer!

Art, alas, the last time I was in Vancouver it was just a walk in Stanley Park (with a fun visit to the zoo) and a visit to Brandi's. I suspect No 5 Orange would have been more fun based upon what a now know.

Stanley park is beautiful in August though.

I got all kinds of wildlife around my yard now. I hear an owl right now. I saw it on the neighbors fence one evening. I even saw a deer run in front of my car one morning in front of my house. It looked scared to death though. It's no wonder because it had to cross at least one busy 5 lane highway to get to my street in the middle of the small town I live in plus a number of two lane streets. It ran towards my back yard but was blocked by my fence. It probably thought my back yard looked like a forest. More like a mini forest. No eagles spotted in my back yard so far. If they would make the song birds shut up, I would welcome the addition. If I had eagles in my back yard too, some environmentalist would probably try to stop me from doing any yard work since I would have accidentally created a habitat for a lot of species in a tiny space.

So far I haven't spotted any legendary black panthers in my back yard. If I do, I will try to take pictures to prove it. Of course such a cat would have to jump over a six foot tall fence.

FarmerArt, I live pretty much on the opposite end of the continent from your Alberta, Northwest Territory, mountains and woods turf. My little home is near a coastal marsh, just a few miles from a very big swamp and the closest thing to a hill anywhere around is and 20' high Indian burial mound about 15 miles south of me. The local weatherman describes an overnight low of 45 as, "bitterly cold." If a winter morning is below 50 F (rare, but it did happen five times last winter) my neighbors wear ski caps, overcoats, scarves and gloves!

But, like you, I to really enjoy the natural world around me especially the avians. Except for that damn hoot-owl who has taken up residence in an elm tree next to my bedroom! That irritating bitch thinks 5:14 AM is a perfect time to wake me up and she will not stop her "who, who, whooting" and limb rattling until I let a dog out to bark at her. I swear, that owl thinks it is funny to wake me an hour before dawn.

Our "relationship" has gotten so weird that when I returned from a two week trip, the oversized bird actually flew from her hidden nest in the tree to land on the gutter over my garage to hoot her displeasure at my absence. I had a "conversation" with her last night that lasted an hour. It didn't change her mind - at 5:14AM she woke me again this morning. This time I think she also dropped some sticks on the roof.

I now think she also knows when I hit a club in the afternoon. The bitch starts whoing me before I even get out of the car.

I love me some Raptors myself.Some of my faves are the A-10 Warthog,A-6 Intruder,AH-64 Apache and the ever deadly Hellfire.They sure can suppress the vermin population.