Preying On The Past

My theme as of late has been reflecting on times gone by. So, as I was dog sitting over the weekend on beautiful Weeks Bay (a small estuary of Mobile Bay), I went for a run along county road 1. During my run, surprisingly, soaring about 100ft overhead was a mature bald eagle. This encounter turned my brain a bit as I began to think about some of my favorite birds of prey moments. Most of these occasions transpired during my 2 years in Colorado, even though I saw lots of birds of prey in my four months in the Alaska bush.

Just so all of you know, I am a HUGE birds of prey guy. They all enrapture me and when I see one I stop dead in my tracks to gaze in wild wonder at the beautiful bird; but on this instance, I was running and did a slow spin around mid stride to catch every glimpse of this rare sight, nearly falling in midst of my paces.

Bald eagles are a rare sight in most places, except in Alaska where they are as abundant as sea gulls are here along the Gulf Coast. We do, however, have some resident bald eagles nesting in the Mobile Bay area. With that said, I grew up here and I have spent countless days on the water ways of the Mobile Bay watershed. This was only the third or fourth bald eagle that I have seen in the Mobile Bay area. So a rare moment indeed.

My most memorable eagle rendezvous happened in late winter of 2010 at the 4UR Ranch. My buddy, Andy, was a waterfowl guide and outfitter in the fall and winter months in the San Louis Valley of Colorado. It is a very productive, halfway unknown, area of the central flyway for migrating birds and waterfowl. The Canadian geese are particularly thick on this flyway. Duck season had ended but goose were still in season and Andy said lets go, so we did. It is always nice to go goose hunting with a professional because, a hunter, I am not. We managed to kill some geese and cleaned them when we returned home to the ranch. We discarded the carcasses about a mile east of the main ranch building near the pump house (the building that houses the water pump and water tank that provides water for the ranch). The next day we decided to go back and see what kind of tracks or signs of animals that had feasted on the remains of the geese. We never dreamed of what would arise.

We approached on Andy's 4 wheeler, and as we came over a hill, we saw an object near the spot where we dumped the carcasses. It didn't take long for us to see that it was a large golden eagle picking apart the remains of our hunt. We eased ever closer to this massive bird, and we came within about a hundred yards or so. Then, the next minute or so felt like slow motion as the golden eagle began to fly towards us. You could hear and almost feel every thrash of it's wings as it continued to stay airborne just feet above the snow pack. The bird was getting closer by the second and heading directly for us; then as it approached within 20 ft. or so, it veered sharply up and over our heads. A maneuver that resembled a fighter pilot making a last second calculation away from danger. It then rested on a tree limb about 50 ft above us. I will never forget the sound of it's wings and the power used to force this huge bird upward (this eagle is not pictured; below is an immature bald eagle).

Truly, one of the greatest wild encounters I've ever had!