NDR--Eagles at the dump

Jeff Reardon

Jeff Reardon

Well-known member
Supporter
This morning was my scheduled run to the local dump, which has been renamed as the "Hatch Hill Multi-Municipal Transfer Station and Landfill".

Believe it or not, this is a very popular spot for birdwatchers. A local bird expert tells me it may the single best place in the northeast to see rare gulls. I don't know my rare gulls, but there are enough common gulls and other trash eaters to attract serious attention from the local eagles.

Today, in about 5 minutes on site, I saw an adult eagle swoop down and try to grab something small (rat?) on the ground (it missed), a juvenile follow the adult down and get the little critter, and then, as I was driving out, had another adult swoop down so low over my truck that I thought it might have been trying to grab something off my roof. I swear I could count the feathers on its belly.

In the past, I've also watched eagles here nail wild turkey poults.

Not bad for a smelly chore!
 
Eagles have become a more and more common site here, especially in winter.
Now its nothing to see them 3-4 times a week, or more.
Kinda like it back when it was exciting to see one.
 
The only thing more common than bald eagles in FL is ospreys and cormorants. I remember after I moved here, I was in a WalMart parking lot and found a dead gizzard shad laying on the ground. I looked up and saw an osprey nest on one of the light poles.

I do a lot of electrofishing for my job. Sometimes the eagles and ospreys learn to follow our boat and pick up the stunned fish that we miss. Interestingly, as soon as one bird picks up a fish, they'd all rather fight over that fish than go pick up one of the dozens that are just floating on the surface.
 
Eagles have become a more and more common site here, especially in winter.
Now its nothing to see them 3-4 times a week, or more.
Kinda like it back when it was exciting to see one.
Click to expand...

What pests, bring back the ddt.
 
I agree, then we can get rid of all these nasty mosquitos, and them fish stealing osprey and brown pelicans too.
 
Had an eagle sitting in a tree in my backyard eating a squirrel which made me very happy that my bird feeders were safe for another day. The interesting part is that I live in a second ring suburb of Minneapolis.
 
Had an eagle sitting in a tree in my backyard eating a squirrel which made me very happy that my bird feeders were safe for another day. The interesting part is that I live in a second ring suburb of Minneapolis.
Click to expand...

My guess is that it was a road kill the eagle picked up. I can't see an eagle successfully catching tree squirrels with any regularity. They're not really designed for bobbing and weaving through the trees.

Back home the most common time to see eagles was feeding on dead livestock in left out in fields. Or below the lock and dams on the Mississippi in the winter.

Our national symbol is pretty much a fancy buzzard.
 
It does seem strange how common Bald Eagles are getting. Last weekend I walked into the back yard and saw one fly 15 feet over my neighbors house. This morning I looked out the window only to see one soaring just out back.
A week ago we had a lot of geese go over. It seems like every year a couple eagles follow them down and then stick around town for the rest of the winter.

The Eagles are cool to see but all the Cooper's Hawks that move in are getting tiresome. I hate not flying my pigeons but if I don't keep them inside my flock would quickly be cut in half.

Tim
 
When I go to British Columbia in the wintertime to visit the outlaws we usually go eagle watching. You can see several hundred in a day gorging themselves on dead salmon and other garbage. Not as majestic in that setting as they normally are. Lol.
 
Nothing gives me more joy than running up to a bird watcher, who is 9/10 times set up directly in the middle of the boat ramp and exclaiming, "Wow would you look at that seagull it is gorgeous! Do you see it mister?"

The look they give you is priceless

There are so many people watching the eagles here especially late February through March.

Ospreys are way more interesting than eagles, king fishers are a blast to watch to.
 
Pool 7 of the Mississippi has invasive Faucet snail, the Trematodes in the snails kill the divers that eat them. If you take a ride through the closed area of the refuge in late Nov. you'll see eagles in the trees, on rat houses and every stump in sight. Walking eagles, too fat to fly...

George
 
The county I live in here in central Ohio now has ten eagles nests and an estimated 50 eagles living in it.


A couple of years ago my wife watched a Cooper hawk swoop into our back yard, turn sideways and pluck a squirrel off our privacy fence. I would have liked to see that!


While writing my masters thesis in Gainesville, FL I had an osprey nest not too far from my house. I enjoy watching the birds fish. But, the noise from the nest got a little tiresome.


Tom
 
When I lived in South Dakota I recall driving past a farm where some hog and cow carcasses were in a pile waiting for the rendering truck to come pick them up. On top of this small hill of decomposing, bloated hogs and cows were a couple of bald eagles enjoying the easy meal. Not nearly as hard as fishing for a living. I have seen eagles eating deer kill on the shoulder of a busy highway. I would drag the dead deer back off the roadway a bit because I was concerned one of the eagles would get hit by a car.
 
I went to an eagle rehab event at a local park a number of years ago. They were releasing an eagle that had been injured. I learned a couple interesting facts, 1) a bald eagle gets it's full white-head plumage at seven years old and 2) The biggest predator of eagles is the automobile for the reason you indicated Dwight.

A couple of years ago I was hunting on Pool 8 just south of La Crosse, Wi and counted 30 eagles around me. There had been a big coot die off that year also.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top