Subject: Re: GOEA eats CAGO
Date: Jan 22 19:11:08 1996
From: Janet Hardin - wings at olympus.net


Mike Smith wrote:

>It wasn't exactly a Chihuahua, but I did see a Golden Eagle this weekend
>eating something I wasn't expecting, a Canada Goose. Right out in the
>middle of open sagebrush habitat, quite a ways from what I would consider
>'good' Canada Goose habitat. Makes me wonder, was it scavenging on
>something a hunter had killed, or did it somehow pull a Canada Goose out
>of the air? It could not lift up the bird and fly off with it when it
>saw me. Anyway, it certainly was 'cool'.

In the winter of '90-'91 I was working for a researcher at Oregon State
University, reading collars and collecting population parameters on Canada
geese (duskies and cacklers) in the Willamette Valley. A juvenile golden
eagle was wintering at the Baskett Slough refuge that year. One day when I
had just started to scan a large field with a couple huge flocks of geese
grazing in it, there was sudden pandemonium to the left of where I was
looking, and all the geese were gone in a flash. Feeling aggravated, I
looked for the source of the panic and saw the eagle on the ground, with
its talons in a cackler, beginning to pluck feathers off and chow down. It
was a bit gut wrenching because the goose wasn't dead yet, and struggled
weakly a few times. The eagle merely adjusted its grip and balance and kept
on eating. As a *scientist* I set aside my emotional squeamishness and took
advantage of the opportunity to watch the event through the Questar scope I
had available. It's not often I get a chance to watch a golden eagle so "up
close and personal" -- I could see the pupils of its eyes.

I was extremely impressed by the eagle's success. CAGO are so attuned to
eagles that I've seen them scatter when a bald eagle was a mere speck in
the sky over a half mile away. This one must have virtually come out of
nowhere, perhaps flying low to the ground an using undulations of terrain
as cover. I wish I had seen the actual strike!

-- Janet Hardin
Port Townsend, WA
wings at olympus.net