Kathy,

Based on several thousand hours of observing urban (Seattle area) eagles I have the following in answer to your questions.

Eagles are crow predators. Crows are very social and will constantly (incessantly) warn other crows (and us) that an eagle is present. They'll do the same mobbing on other raptors (Red-tailed Hawks for instance).
But you already knew that eagles eat crow, since you described an instance of eagles taking nestling crows.

Individual eagles react differently to crows. The first female eagle nesting in Discovery Park, Seattle (late 80s), when perched in a tree near her nest tree would get all bent out of shape when crows dive-bombed her, scream, and move to her nest (where the crows would cease dive-bombing).

The second female would ignore, sit and glower, then when the dive-bombing crow got careless she would give chase and I watched a few very close calls for crows narrowly missing getting snatched out of thin air.

The first male Bald Eagle at Lower Woodland Park, Seattle (early 90s), specialized in finding crows nests and bringing nestling crow to his eaglets for food. The base of the nest tree had many, many blood feathers strewn around the base.

I think I've recounted the following incident on tweeters before (so skip if you're a long-time tweeterite). Watching in Discovery Park a crow lands on a branch near / behind the perched female eagle. This was the second female who just ignored most crows verbal abuse. The crow got increasingly verbal and worked up, then took out its frustration on a nearby branch. This branch, long, wispy, happened to extend out over the head of the eagle. The branch swished and tapped the eagle on the head. She immediately looked at the crow who simply yelled at her some more.
The crow took a brief reprise from the verbal abuse, but soon started up again. Worked itself up into a frenzy, was completely ignored by the eagle, hit the branch which hit the eagle, which got her attention.
After the fourth time the eagle took action. She took two sideways steps along the branch she was perched on.
The crow got all exited again and hit the branch, which this time hit nothing but thin air. Very slowly and deliberately the female eagle turned to look over her shoulder at the crow.....who just sat there very quietly.
I could have sworn I heard the eagle snicker.

As to why an eagle would drop a partially decomposed crow in front of a hiker, I can only guess. Perhaps the eagle was startled and dropping the crow remains was simply a reflex? I've seen startled eagles drop things. Come to think of it I've seen eagles drop things, period. Branches, fish, grass, all sorts of things.

I'll stop rambling now.

Martin Muller, Seattle, WA
martinmuller at msn.com<mailto:martinmuller at msn.com>