FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Golden Eagle Experiences

["Ken Hale" <khale@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

When I was a wildlife manager on the Clinch Mountain WMA near Saltville 
Virginia, during the winter I had regular  sightings of Golden Eagles.  Two 
encounters are particularly memorable.
On one occasion, I had picked up a deer carcass and dumped it over the bank of 
a road.  Later that week, I was traveling up the road and quite shocked when a 
Golden Eagle jumped up off the carcass, and began running down the road trying 
to take flight, much like a goose.  Nearly hit the bird with my truck.

On another occasion, we were preparing for a controlled burn in March.  As we 
waited for the burn time of 4:00 p.m., we began watching a Golden Eagle soaring 
high overhead.  The bird suddenly stooped, diving quickly out of sight behind a 
ridge.  We drove up the road to see where it went, and located the bird sitting 
on a rock, eating a freshly-killed ground hog.  The bird took nearly 15 minutes 
to devour its kill, then flew away.  We examined the carcass, and found only 
the skin (turned completely inside-out), the feet, a portion of the backbone, 
and part of the skull remaining.  

When the coyotes hit Southwest in the mid '80's and began killing sheep in 
Tazewell County, Virginia, we regularly observed Golden Eagles on the sheep 
farms.  The coyotes killed the lambs, then ate the liver and the contents of 
the stomach which was curdled milk.  The eagles cleaned up the rest.  
Fortunately, the farmers knew the eagles were not the primary predators.  

Up until the 60's however, several large farms in Washington, Russell and 
Tazewell counties paid bounties for Golden Eagles, which required turning in a 
foot and the scalp.  Common capture techniques included finding a dead calf or 
lamb, then staking out steel traps around it.

Knowing that I had done a lot of raptor trapping, I received a call from the 
state trapper for the Virginia Game Commission about a Golden Eagle killing pen 
reared turkeys.  The eagle would land near the flock, then calmly walk among 
the turkeys, and grab his victim with his talons.  At my suggestion, the 
trapper staked out a turkey in a stationary position, set up a rocket net, then 
blasted the net over the bird.   

Neat creatures, very opportunistic.

Ken Hale
Bristol, TN
Former wildlife manager, turned stumble birder.


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