Eagles are notorious scavengers and most raptors won't turn down an easy
meal. I watched a red shoulder gorge on a roadkill deer for days. In fact
one of the reasons eagles and hawks are so often found with lead toxicity
is because of their tendency to feed on gut piles left by hunters. It only
takes a single lead pellet to kill an eagle.
I saw a red bellied woodpecker feeding on a road killed squirrel last
week--winter drives a lot of animals to seek fat and protein to get through
the tough times.
Leslie
On Dec 28, 2017 10:15 AM, "morann--- via va-bird" <va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I saw something I'd never seen before as i was driving last Saturday from
Virginia to Annapolis for Christmas. Not far on the other side of
Fredericksburg, on Route 3, I passed a dead deer on the side of the road. A
vulture (couldn't see his head) and an eagle were at opposite ends of it,
eating. I was surprised to see an eagle eating road kill. I turned around
and went back. As I was driving back I saw a vulture in the air and sure
enough, when I got back to the place where the dead deer was, only the
eagle was still there. I stopped just short of this and the eagle stopped
eating and was just watching me watch him. In a couple of minutes he
obviously got unnerved and flew away, but only about 6 feet or so, he just
flew and landed a short distance and continued watching me. I left soon
thereafter so as not to further disturb him. I've seen eagles eating fish
in Oregon but I'd never seen an eagle eating road kill. Is this normal?
Ann Donaldson
Barboursville
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