Yard Hopper series, the Eagle
Contributors to this thread:Small Game
From: Paul@thefort
24-Dec-22
Wow, a temperature change of 30 degrees over night. Very few geese around with all of the surrounding lakes frozen. Some open water on the canals and harboring a few geese. I went to the goose field to run Teal but not to hunt. Just sort of a scouting trip before the hunt on Tuesday. I cleared the snow in a large area in front of the blind to expose some grass and to start the melting process quicker. Temperatures on Mon, Tues, and Wed, expected to the in the low 50s.
After this work was completed and ran Teal, I droved down the road and past a private pond, 1/3 mile from the goose field. One of the bubblers was working on the pond providing some open water for a few geese that were relaxing near the pond. But that was not the only critter at the pond!
From: Paul@thefort
24-Dec-22
A few geese relaxing at the pond near open water
A few geese relaxing at the pond near open water
But not 10 yards away was this Golden Eagle tearing apart a dead goose.
But not 10 yards away was this Golden Eagle tearing apart a dead goose.
Predator/prey. Sort of like Paul and Teal and goose
Predator/prey. Sort of like Paul and Teal and goose
and it seemed like he was sharing the goose with a Magpie
and it seemed like he was sharing the goose with a Magpie
From: Paul@thefort
24-Dec-22
or two Magpies
or two Magpies
later the Eagle flew away
later the Eagle flew away
and landed in a near by tree over looking the pond. Ha! I guess I am not the only predator hunting geese in the area.
and landed in a near by tree over looking the pond. Ha! I guess I am not the only predator hunting geese in the area.
From: KSflatlander
24-Dec-22
FYI That’s a juvenile bald eagle. The modeled white on the underbelly is an identifier. A golden eagle won’t have that. Great pictures.
From: Paul@thefort
24-Dec-22
Thanks, Good id, Bald Eagle it is. There is Avian Bird flu in Colorado that is affecting geese and ducks and killing some Raptors also. Hard to tell why this goose died. Might have been a shot gun pellet or...................................
From: Glunt@work
24-Dec-22
My son and I snuck out this morning. Way fewer geese around than last week. The cold snap moved a bunch. But, we did get one batch to commit just before we picked up.
From: INbowdude
24-Dec-22
Merry Christmas Eve geese. Nice.
From: Paul@thefort
24-Dec-22
Yea, with the cold spell, the geese fly much later, ie, after 9 for sure.
From: Supernaut
24-Dec-22
Great pics Paul, thanks for sharing them and Merry Christmas!
From: Zbone
24-Dec-22
Paul, you sure that is a Golden eagle? Looks like an immature bald not old enough to wear the white head and tail... They don't receive the white until they're 4th or 5th year...
From: Zbone
24-Dec-22
From: Jaquomo
24-Dec-22
Lots of bald eagles around right now. Supposed to warm up this week and should get better for you!
From: Jaquomo
24-Dec-22
No geese for us this morning, only about 25 big fish... good Christmas Eve outing, sight fishing with my sweetie. No longarm needed with this one.
From: Paul@thefort
25-Dec-22
Hey Lou, I have never cooked a Golden Trout, but this from a fish magazine. What say you about taste?
"Golden trout taste I made a point of cooking the golden trout first, curious about how its salmon-colored flesh would taste. Even sautéed almondine, all of us had agreed the golden trout tasted fishier, almost bitter, compared with the sweeter, white-fleshed browns and rainbows."
From: Paul@thefort
25-Dec-22
While golden trout can be found in other lakes in Colorado, the state record golden trout – weighing in at 3.75 pounds and measuring 22 1/2 inches – was caught in Kelly Lake by Donald O’Leary in 1979.
Page's fish looks like more than 3#??????????????
From: jordanathome
25-Dec-22
Great post to start out Christmas Morning. Well done my friends!!!
From: Jaquomo
25-Dec-22
I have eaten goldens in the Wind Rivers and also from Kelly, and they taste like any other trout. But these are palomino rainbows, which are a color phase, not a species or subspecies. No golden genes in them. People mistake them for goldens though. Weird fish.
Merry Christmas to you, Trish, and Teal. And you, too, Jordan! ;-)
From: drycreek
25-Dec-22
Eagles are certainly birds of opportunity. I was privileged to watch three bald eagles eat on a hog I had killed a few years ago. First the mama (I’m assuming) and a juvenile landed in my food plot. Funny thing, she would not let the juvenile eat any of the hog. The papa (again I’m assuming) then landed and they both ate on that hog for over thirty minutes. They never did let the juvenile eat, he just stood there looking like a stump. Eventually the mama and juvenile flew off and the papa continued to eat. Another group of pigs ran into the plot and papa lifted off and made a dive at them, they scattered like a covey of quail and he landed in a big pine tree, sat a few minutes and left. All I had was a phone to take pics with and they turned out useless at 100 yards so I trashed them. I still think that papa made the run at those pigs for fun.
From: Corax_latrans
25-Dec-22
Am I the only one willing to entertain the possibility that the eagle killed that goose itself?
I don’t recall ever seeing anything on whether Baldies prey on other birds or not, but a goose doesn’t strike me as being any harder to pick off than a rabbit, gopher, fish, etc…..
Pretty cool either way. Always enjoy your posts, Paul!
From: Jaquomo
25-Dec-22
GF, there is no shortage of dead and wounded geese in our area, and now we have avian flu killing them too. That's why we have so many bald eagles around this time of year.
My neighbor was a serious falconer. He trained a prairie falcon to kill geese in the air, and we used to go out "flying" all the time. It was amazing. National Geographic sent a film crew out to do a segment on it, but the day before his bird took a goose down and the rest of the flock followed, and killed his bird on the ground.
From: Bourque77
25-Dec-22
Several years ago, son #2 and I were fishing a big reservoir north of Laramie. Adjacent to the reservoir was a smaller body of water, really just a large pond. That pond was loaded with coots, probably a couple hundred birds. Two eagles, a juvenile bald and a mature bald, probably a parent, were attempting to snatch up a duck. The older bird made several low passes at the coots. It was kinda funny, when the eagle got close to the coots, they would either scatter to the side or dive. The older eagle finally latched on to one coot who must not have been paying attention. He/she took it to the shore, landed, and started plucking feathers before digging into the meat. Junior kept attempting to get in on the feast, but the older bird was not sharing. 20 minutes later, mom/dad took off, leaving junior with nothing but bones and a few tidbits of meat.
We had watched this whole incident thru binocs a few hundred yards away.
From: Paul@thefort
25-Dec-22
GF. I have seen Bald Eagles pick off Snow Geese from the ice out east in Colorado on a large ice covered lake with an open water out there that the geese have kept open. Usually they wait in the trees until the big Snow geese flocks get up. There is always the possibility when 1000 geese get up all at once, a few get injured and are easy to pick off. I have not seen local Balds pick off healthy Canada geese but then, not around all the time watching. The goose that this Eagle was eating on seemed to be partly frozen in the snow.
From: deerhunter72
27-Dec-22
Great pictures! I was fortunate enough to see 3 juvenile Bald Eagles last week. They were feeding on a carcus of some sort. Very impressive sight to see!
From: Corax_latrans
28-Dec-22
Thanks, Paul/Lou - been away too long, but I couldn’t imagine an eagle passing up his Christmas Goose ;)
From: Shuteye
29-Dec-22
A neighbor of mine has farm ponds in his fields that are loaded with ducks when they aren't frozen over. He guides duck and goose hunts on his farm. A couple years ago he told me a bald eagle would swoop in early in the morning and take a mallard. it would be back in the afternoon for another mallard. Eagles used to follow my gator when I was taking a deer up there to field dress. There was a nice concrete pad with a frost proof spigot. I would dress the deer and put the guts in a couple five gallon buckets and dump them in the field. Eagles would be on it right away. My wife said the eagles would sit in a tree in my back yard waiting for me to get a deer.
