Scott,
The Golden Eagle behavior you describe is fascinating. I have two
stories to recount about Golden Eagles that had me both awestruck and
perplexed at the time. In 1980 I was hiking outside of Denali Nat'l Park
and came across a grizzly bear with a caribou kill. The caribou was long
dead when we arrived and was in at least three parts. We were on a slope
above the bear and hoping to cross the river valley but, seeing the bear
with its kill, we decided to wait and "give him space" (the operative
vernacular of the time). Our patience (or wisdom if you will) was soon
rewarded when two golden eagles came on the scene and began immediately
harrassing the bear. The eagles worked as a team, with one eagle harrassing
the bear while the other eagle pulled the smallest caribou piece farther
away from the carcass. The eagles would take turns harrassing the bear and
dining and the infuriated bear would charge at the first eagle, only
to see eagle #2 swoop in and drag away another caribou piece farther from the
carcass. This drama played out over 30 minutes and the amazing thing was that
both eagles chose to harrass *from the ground*. The bear soon realized the
nature of the game and, giving up eating altogether, would ferociously
attack the dining eagle.
The eagles' behavior seemed a cross between playful and death-defying. Many
a time it seemed that the bear would surely get an eagle this time, but the
eagle would just manage to fly up out of reach--only to land 10-20 feet away!!
We all thought that the eagles were cutting things a little close--with
their wings at times seeming to just escape out of reach like a matador's
cape!! After half an hour of this, the exhausted bear gave up and
returned to its meal. When we left the scene along a parallel ridge, all
three animal could be seen dining on caribou about 75 yards apart.

The second golden eagle phenomenon was seen during a 6 day kayaking trip
on the Green River in Utah. The river goes through some spectacular
canyon country, with the canyon walls in some places going up in eroded
steps 2000-4000 feet above the river, sort of like a "mini" Grand Canyon.
There I saw a pair of golden eagles soaring on the thermals hundreds of feet
above the canyon rim. The eagles approached each other, not directly but in
tighter and tighter concentric circles. After a series of piercing
introductory cries that echoed down the canyon, the eagles suddenly locked
talons and plummeted more than 2000 feet!! before disengaging only about
100-200 feet above the ground. I was stunned and frankly don't recall
what the eagles did after that (they didn't do it again). This
immediately precipitated a rash of speculation on whether these were
(potential) mates or possibly rivals and on the "why" of it, but I still
don't really know. Anyone out there care to speculate if this is
"courtship" behavior?

Tom Cotner
tcotner at u.washington.edu
Dept. of Pediatrics, U. of Washington
(206) 543-6755