Backyard Guard

Modern Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Modern Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Beautiful critters! I have a pair that’s nests just down the road from us and enjoy watching them. Luckily they leave our chickens and ducks alone. Plenty of road kill deer on our road that I bet they never have to hunt.
 
We have a nesting pair about a mile from us. In our back yard we have an old oak and have had them resting in it. I shot a nuisance squirrel not long ago from the oak and had an eagle swoop in and grab the critter before it stopped flopping....ten feet from the landing I was standing on. In the park behind us there's a huge cottonwood at the confluence of a stream and river and the eagle love that tree. I've watched them pluck mallards off the water there.

We'll also get a golden eagle occasionally. Seriously big birds. I've seen them in that big cottonwood too.

Great topic!
 
There are a few pairs with nests in the battle ground near the CG training center (or on board) in Yorktown VA. Use to watch them occasionally... what was really interesting was all the photographers that would park and set up tripods along the road. They were all vying for good photos (like what you posted here).

Duck hunting stories: I've had them swoop down and steal dead ducks and cripples. Somewhat frustrating when you aren't close to limiting out... But when you are, you realize they just extended your hunt by pulling a bird out of your bag! They'd usually go to a nearby tall tree or light pole... rip the breast out, gulp it down, drop the carcass, and then wait and try to get your next duck. Sometimes we'd get to the blind and it would have carcasses with the breast's ripped out. Like a calling card.

One of the funniest things was watching a cripple swim away on big open water... with a strong current/wind pulling him away: with a pair of Eagles diving down to get him. As soon as the eagles closed in to the water's surface, the duck dove... and they'd pull up hard... then he'd pop up... then they'd dive. The eagles both traced big "W"s trying to beat the other to the cripple. Went on until they all drifted out of sight.

One time, we'd limited, and unloaded and an eagle swooped in to get our last duck. My buddy (gun unloaded) just shouldered it and swung his bead to the eagle... Jokingly said something like "Not gonna get this one buddy...." The eagle knew something was up, and took off leaving the duck! Someone must have educated him! Maybe it was because that buddy shoots a 10ga? :)
 
I got my lunker pin anyway for a huge cuttthroat i released. This one might have been even larger. Im not overly fond of most trout as far as eating. That eagle sat up in a tree watching me and a buddy for quite some time. Im fairly certain it was a learned behavior and not his first time.
 
I'm right on the Mississippi in Iowa; Bald Eagles are all over the place here. I remember Marlin Perkins and Jim Fowler explaining to me, through Grandpa's 17" Curtis-Mathes on Mutual of Omaha's "Wild Kingdom" as I sat on the floor with a pan of Jiffy Pop, that without major changes in human behavior, there might be none of these birds left in the wild for my own children to see. Every time I see them now, I'm reminded that enough people paying attention to facts and concerned enough to act on them with discipline and determination can make a real difference in outcomes. That's a theme I hope to see renewed amid current events.
 
Bald eagles aren't evened threatened anymore. They claim it was due to DDT that they were endangered. I don't believe that. I believe it was the poison they were using to kill coyotes and wolves. Once the varmints were killed, they were eaten by eagles. We saved the eagles, but we sure don't control coyotes and wolves anymore. The deer hunting sure reflects that. We had a coyote hunting contest a couple of years ago here in NM, but the liberals have outlawed that. We don't control bears anymore either. We saw 10 on a week long hunt a few years ago. That's when I started hunting bear. The meat is surprisingly good.
 
Bald eagles aren't evened threatened anymore. They claim it was due to DDT that they were endangered. I don't believe that. I believe it was the poison they were using to kill coyotes and wolves. Once the varmints were killed, they were eaten by eagles. We saved the eagles, but we sure don't control coyotes and wolves anymore. The deer hunting sure reflects that. We had a coyote hunting contest a couple of years ago here in NM, but the liberals have outlawed that. We don't control bears anymore either. We saw 10 on a week long hunt a few years ago. That's when I started hunting bear. The meat is surprisingly good.

I've heard that they are good to eat, but for some reason, even though I eat heart, liver, and sweetbreads, the idea of eating something that would eat me doesn't sound right. If I shoot one of those things here in Montana, the law says I have to eat it, so it kinda keeps me from wanting to.
Squint
 
Back
Top