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America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

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Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#81

Post by [deleted] »

POiNTx wrote: post #76
disambiguation wrote: post #66

This remind me of a PlanetMoney episode from a while ago > https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/02/03/513302816/epis... > Over time, though, Harris's worldview changed. He started to see the downside to the industrial farming ... To replace the chemical fertilizer, he brought in chickens and let them roam free. Free-range chickens would fertilize the grass; the grass would nurture the cattle, and shoppers at Whole…

The Biggest Little Farm[1] is a good documentary on this sort of topic. They started an organic farm and hit a similar pain point when coyotes started eating their chickens. They also had a problem with gophers eating their crops. I don't remember exactly but they were fighting the gophers with something, but it wasn't working that well. The solution was to let the gophers go wild, and the coyotes would take care of…

[deleted]

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#82

Post by sn_master »

disambiguation wrote: post #66

This remind me of a PlanetMoney episode from a while ago > https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/02/03/513302816/epis... > Over time, though, Harris's worldview changed. He started to see the downside to the industrial farming ... To replace the chemical fertilizer, he brought in chickens and let them roam free. Free-range chickens would fertilize the grass; the grass would nurture the cattle, and shoppers at Whole…

Can he use drones to scare them? Making noise and lights etc not kinetic force.

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#83

Post by longshui »

xiaolingxiao wrote: post #16
NDizzle wrote: post #14

I just moved back to Arkansas after being in California for 20 years. Here's a picture a local took along AR highway 59. 7 bald eagles hanging out. https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/155912289_4304... I have some good shots of one eating breakfast behind my house as well. Kind of gory though.

so much freedom!

allow the pigeon to disagree

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#84

Post by wirrbel »

wiredfool wrote: post #6

Bald Eagles are HUGE. You don't realize it until one drops out of a tree near you and flies off. Either that or you see them feeding on road kill deer.

I am always reminded of this meme

https://img.ifunny.co/images/70898eeb8bc2323e320aca74b03bb9a...

"Basically a glorified seagull"

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#85

Post by alistairSH »

elwell wrote: post #53

Relaxing work buddy to keep on your third monitor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zE6qcgTox8

Video of video-equipment installation... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu4Motcpq5A

Not just one random eagle enthusiast, but a whole team of volunteers.

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#86

Post by JoeAltmaier »

NittLion78 wrote: post #39
snarf21 wrote: post #3

This is great news. It is really about the pesticides more than anything else. In my area, hawks are EVERYWHERE . I see at least 1 every 5 miles along the highway (farmland) watching for food. This was not true 20 years ago.

You still see a lot of them being brought into wildlife rescue hospitals for lead poisoning from having eaten birdshot or in some other way ingesting fired ammunition. Seems to be the biggest issue in the Midwest for them, anyway. Either way, as a kid I remember being told to assume you'd never see one and they'd probably be extinct in my lifetime. Now I couldn't even tell you how many I've seen, from as far east as…

I see reports about 'a dozen' etc suffering from lead ingestion. But no national statistics, just anecdotes.

Considering that hunters shoot millions of lead bullets each year, it seems a small problem? It's suggested that birds eat guts from eviscerated animals that hunters leave behind. Perhaps a policy of burying or scattering the guts would solve the problem?

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#87

Post by kebman »

Man, I really want to see one some day! Made me think of this story telling of an eagle allegedly swooping down and snatching a toddler right from the ground on the island Leka in Norway. She was apparently playing in a blanket, so the talons didn't scratch her, but she was carried almost two kilometres away. The ordeal triggered a search party that eventually found her almost 200 metres up the mountain side, unschated. Norwegian source: https://www.nettavisen.no/artikkel/ble-svanhild-2-tatt-av-or... So if you live in eagle territory, you better watch your children. ;)

Anyway, I remember trying to video those things where I grew up. But they were pretty shy, so I could never get close enough to get a good picture of them. Really amazing bird though not Bald Eagles given that I'm from Europe. If you've got the patience and the equipment to get good pictures of those, then kudos to you, because that's not easy!

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#89

Post by tw04 »

frankfrankfrank wrote: post #74
tw04 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is why you have dogs to protect your livestock. I think people forget that man's best friend became that way by doing jobs for us. Want your cattle and chickens protected from wolves, fox, eagles, etc? Train some dogs to protect them.

Are you actually aware of dogs protecting free-range chickens against bald eagles? I am not sure that bald eagles really care about dogs. A bald eagle will swoop down and snatch a chicken or even two and fly away without even landing. That being said I think an even very loose "netting" that can consist of simply rope criss-crossing with certain gaps can sufficiently dissuade eagles and even other prey birds.

>Are you actually aware of dogs protecting free-range chickens against bald eagles?

At any given time I've got 3-5 bald eagles in the woods around my house. There are 3 houses with chickens in the neighborhood. The eagles won't go anywhere near a yard with a dog - I'm quite confident they aren't dumb enough to tangle with a large dog unless they have no other option for food.

I have no doubt if an eagle was starving to death it might tangle with the dog and might even win, but I don't think that would be their first, second, or fifth choice if there were other food options.

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#90

Post by TheCondor »

Xcel Energy has a great Bald Eagle camera near one of their energy generation plants in Colorado https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAy3rgJszQg

It's insanely addictive. Over 40 eaglets have hatched out of there since they've been counting. Also potentially interesting to this crowd, the energy plant is natural gas but was originally a thorium nuclear plant.

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