Thought you might enjoy this. Taz Terry Phillips The lesson: If you're forced to fight, give no quarter. It's good to have back-up from your mate though. This came from a gent who runs a 2000 acre corn farm up around Barron, WI, not far from Oshkosh. He flew F-4Es and F-16s for the Guard and participated in the first Gulf War... Submitted for your enjoyment, and as a reminder that there are other great, magnificent flyers around besides us. ------------------------------------------------- I went out to plant corn for a bit to finish a field before tomorrow morning and witnessed The Great Battle. A golden eagle - big bastard, about six foot wingspan - flew right in front of the tractor. It was being chased by three crows that were continually dive-bombing it and pecking at it. The crows do this because the eagles rob their nests when they find them. At any rate, the eagle banked hard right in one evasive maneuver, and then landed in the field about 100 feet from the tractor. This eagle stood about 3 feet tall. The crows all landed too and took up positions around the eagle at 120 degrees apart, but kept their distance at about 20 feet from the big bird. The eagle would take a couple steps towardsone of the crows and they'd hop backwards and forward to keep their distance. Then the reinforcement showed up. I happened to spot the eagle's mate hurtling down out of the sky at what appeared to be approximately Mach 1.5. Just before impact the eagle on the ground took flight, (obviously a coordinated tactic; probably pre-briefed) and the three crows which were watching the grounded eagle, also took flight thinking they were going to get in some more pecking on the big bird. The first crow being targeted by the diving eagle never stood a snowball's chance in hell. There was a mid-air explosion of black feathers and that crow was done. The diving eagle then banked hard left in what had to be a 9G climbing turn, using the energy it had accumulated in the dive, and hit crow #2 less than two seconds later. Another crow dead. The grounded eagle, which was now airborne and had an altitude advantage on the remaining crow, which was streaking eastward in full burner, made a short dive then banked hard right when the escaping crow tried to evade the hit. It didn't work - crow #3 bit the dust at about 20 feet altitude. This aerial battle was better than any air show I've been to, including the warbird show at Oshkosh! The two eagles ripped the crows apart and ate them on the ground, and as I got closer and closer working my way across the field, I passed within 20 feet of one of them as it ate its catch. It stopped and looked at me as I went by and you could see in the look of that bird that it knew who's Boss of the Sky. What a beautiful bird! I love it. Not only did they kill their enemy, they ate them, too.
Thanks for the story. Would love to have seen it. Golden Eagles are the most beautiful and majestic predators alive.
Brian- Agree, and they are huge. During a float down the San Juan River in northern NM, we came around a bend only about 10' from the bank. A Golden was standing right on the bank. As we got closer we could see it had caught a muskrat and was sort of dancing around as the still very much alive muskrat tried to bite the foot not holding it down. The bank was only about 6" high, but the bird's head was way above ours as we sat in captain's chairs. Looking up at it like that, the bird's size was very impressive. He must have had at least a 7' wing span. They are really making a comeback in the West. Have seen up to two dozen in one day on the South Fork of the Snake River in Idaho, and even more Bald Eagles and Ospreys. Taz Terry Phillips
My parents have a nesting pair of eagles right by their house. It's funny to watch them fly around and get attacked by just about any and every bird near by - they just keep flying along as if nothing is happening. They get attacked by seagulls, crows, sparrows, and any combination of those three at the same time. They are awesome birds, especially if you can see them up close. Took this shot fishing one morning..it's not really sharp because I had to crop it big time to get up close: Image Unavailable, Please Login
