A great sight for this time we're in.

[Will Hinton]

I live right by an infield farm lot of about 10 to 12 acres which borders my lot in the back.  Yesterday I looked out my patio door and saw a huge bird in the middle of that field no more than a hundred yards away.
I grabbed the binoculars and watched until it turned sideways and i could see the shape, it was an eagle!  He/she was closer to houses all around than I would ever have thought one would be.  I sneaked out around my shop and nailed him with my camera just before he took flight. What a magnificent sight!  Looked like 80 foot wingspan that close up!  Wow.  (I figure our squirrel population is a bit less now.)

[Dave_Trible]

They are awesome Will.  They nest pretty near my flying field some years.  One was down on the field a couple years ago.  I thought to get a little closer for a picture.  He turned to look at me about ready to take off.... I retreated to the car quickly!  I didn’t want to tick that bird off.  I think they help keep the grey racer snake population down there. 

Dave

[Brett Buck]

They are awesome Will.  They nest pretty near my flying field some years.  One was down on the field a couple years ago.  I thought to get a little closer for a picture.  He turned to look at me about ready to take off.... I retreated to the car quickly!  I didn’t want to tick that bird off.  I think they help keep the grey racer snake population down there. 

Dave

  We have had eagles around our Napa flying fields (old and new). At the old site, they would sit on top of a telephone pole looking down into the grass, and sometimes watching the airplanes. The claws were big enough that they were "palming" the top of the pole, some of them on the front and big enough to grab the back at the same time. This was pretty close to the circle, and we went over near the pole sometimes, and they never seemed to be all that interested in what we did. You would not want them mad at you, every once in a while they would swoop down and kill something.

    At our new circle, they sit up on the guy wires going to the radio antennas across the street, same thing.

      Brett

     

[john e. holliday]

Some times a small pet becomes the victum.  Yes, that eagle at the field does look graceful in the air and terrifying on the ground.

[Dan McEntee]

   I have driven the route from my house in North St. Louis County, MO to Montezuma, Iowa for the SIG C/L contests and other events for the last 30 plus years or so, and it more or less parallels the Mississippi River for most of the way. Mark Hughes and I traveled to Montezuma on Sunday, March 13th for Hazel SIG-Hester's 100th birthday party and along the way there we saw four Bald Eagles either sitting in fields or perched on poles. First time that has even happened. I have seen them around my house a few times, and even at Buder Park flying over head, and they are magnificent in the air. We are only about 10 minutes away from the Mississippi and the Chain of Rocks rapids and they like to winter in this area and some others just a bit up river when the winters are severe up north because of the easy fishing in winter time. There is a place near Buder called The Raptor House or something like that, and they bring Bald Eagles that they are rehabbing but ar e not capable of living in the wild, down to Buder and work training them and exercising them. One person stands at one end pf the grass strip across from the circles and another person stands at the other end and they sort of "play catch" with the bird and send it back and forth. Really neat to see!
  Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[Will Hinton]

I'm envious of you guys, I have to drive twenty miles either southwest or southeast to one of the damns in the Maumee river to see them on a regular basis.  I think they nest in the damn areas because of the swift, shallow water below and the fishing is good for them.

[Crist Rigotti]

Nice!

[Brett Buck]

    When I was a kid, we visited someone's house where they had an entire room dedicated to their families' great patriotism - a huge case with a bunch of medals, several swords on the wall, a M1 Garand, a bazooka, etc. Centerpiece of their collection - *3 stuffed bald eagles that they had shot and stuffed*!  Even at 5 years old, I wondered how shooting our national bird exhibited your patriotic dedication. We were warned again and again that it was illegal to hurt/kill a meadowlark (the state bird of Kansas) but that thing on the back of a $1 coin, open season? 

    I think this may have been the same bunch that proudly displayed their chicken coop full of fighting cocks. On the way home,  even my dad told us how despicable that was, along with bullfighting. 
   
 I would note that the Bald Eagle was among the first animals included in the Endangered Species act (along with the alligator and the whooping crane), and it now off the list entirely, having  made a very robust recovery. Alligators, too. The whooping crane, not so much.

   Note that the international ratings for how "endangered" a species may be are a classic example of "tactical syntax" - ALL the ratings from "extinct" to "least concern" are all intended to be alarmist. The Norway rat, which is about as likely to go extinct as the cockroach and crooked politicians, and are listed at "least concern". The next step down is "near threatened". So no matter how may of them there might be, we are always concerned, so as to maintain a permanent state of worry.

       Brett

[Will Hinton]

 Quote from Brett "The Norway rat, which is about as likely to go extinct as the cockroach and crooked politicians, and are listed at "least concern".

Brett, you've had a lot of really super clever and accurate comments on the Hanger down through the years, but this one is your finest hour!  Everyone should print this out and frame it!  Waytago!

[Scott Richlen]

  crooked politicians   

sort of a redundant phrase, no?

[John Park]

No eagles down my way just yet (I live in the densely-populated south-east of England), but there's hope - the beautiful Red Kite, almost extinct in Britain seventy years ago, has made a big come-back and is quite a common sight.  I've seen Ospreys and Golden Eagles in Scotland, and they seem to be on the increase too.  Still, I doubt they'll ever be as common as Kestrels, which, as long as fifty years ago, I could see from my fifth-floor office window in the heart of London, putting on a fine display of aerobatics as they kept the local pigeon population in check.

[Steve Helmick]

Around here, every small lake or pond has at least one breeding pair of Bald Eagles. Lake Washington has dozens of breeding pairs. They're common enough that they're no big deal, which is kinda sad, but also good.

FWIW, it's illegal to possess even a shed feather from a Bald Eagle. If you happen to find one and pick it up, deny that you know it's a Bald Eagle feather. Plead the 5th...  Steve