While camped 8 miles north of Hart's Pass in the Paysaten wilderness
yesterday, at 6,400' and after our high alttitude breakfast, I continued
to watch a sow black bear with cub working their way upwards through berry
fields northwest of us on the next ridge, slighly less than 2 miles away.
We had been watching them for the past hour or so through the binoculars,
having seen bears there in the past. When the bears neared the top of
their ridge an eagle that had glided over the bears suddenly dive bombed
them, from what seemed like at least 100'. It did this a total of three
times, with the bears remaining still the first two, on the third dive,
they quickly ran up and over the ridge top, out of sight. The eagle
appeared mature, visible white near the tail region, difficult to
determine if it was a golden or bald, I favor bald with the white so
pronounced at this great distance, clear, early morning light. A slightly
smaller eagle, perhaps 2/3's in size soared nearby during and after the
encounter. Never heard of eagles being so aggressive to bears. We would
be interested if any one else has read or heard of anything so similar?