So, what would you do?

[DocM]

I'm sitting here, stirring the po.. I mean, wasting time on the computer, babysitting my goats who are in the yard getting some sun and frolic.. I hear the chickens frantically squawking and a huge BANG on the side of the house. My first thought it that my 5 month old mastif/rotti pup is chasing chickens, although she's been pretty well broken of that for weeks. I grab my rifle, and go out there.. no chickens, squawking from under the house, goats bunched up and looking to the west, around the side of the house, towards the open back of their barn. As I approach, I see movement, and thinking it's a coyote, raise my rifle, only to see - it's a Bald Eagle sitting there, maybe stunned from hitting the side of the house. I can't shoot. I'm a retired wildlife biologist! Anyway, she flapped off to a tree about 100 yards away. I fired a shot over her head and she took off into the deeper woods. I expect she'll be back. So my question - would you eat an eagle?

[Janis Sauncy]

Eating it would be one way to get rid of the evidence!

Janis

[morrowsmowers]

I imagine they taste a lot like chicken. Isn't an eagle a protected bird? My son and I visited an eagle sanctuary a few years ago.

Ken in Glassboro, NJ

[pancho]

Better no just stop at eating the meat. Eat the feathers also unless you want to take the chance.

[Cygnet]

DocM, if she flew into the side of the house I'd worry about sickness or poisoning in the bird. I know that eagles are sometimes scavengers and have issues with lead poisoning and heavy metals, which can cause incoordination.

Baldies don't generally take chickens, either, at least in my experience -- they're fish eaters and scavengers. I had one that would hang out around my property sometimes (there's a canal nearby it was fishing in) and it never bothered my chickens, though it scared them to death. The bitty harris hawk was another story entirely!

I suppose a young dumb one might try and might be clumsy enough to hit your house in the attempt -- did it have the white head yet?

-- Leva

[BethW]

I almost hit one last week as it sat in the middle of the road chowing on roadkill. It was much more reluctant to leave its breakfast than the vultures are.

Either way, it was a most undignified scene for our national bird.

[Mel-]

well, I'll take a stab at actually ANSWERING his question:

no, I would not eat eagle. not even if it were legal. think it would taste like mice and snakes (or for the bald eagle, dead fish).

[DocM]

Full on white head.

I've seen them snatch my pigeons out of the air.

I think last tally, there are 20 something breeding pairs in the area.

[Janis Sauncy]

"His" question?

Someone's not gonna be happy..........

Janis

[Janis Sauncy]

I missed that one, but by posting again I just got my 600th post! It's only taken me a year and a half.

Janis

[DocM]

Congrats! I'm hoping to 2000 soon. Then the oldies will stop referring to me as "hey newbie".

[radiofish]

DocM - you state that as a retired Wildlife Biologist, you are wondering if you should shoot a Bald Eagle????? Well as a disabled Federal Fisheries Biologist (US Fish and Wildlife Service), all I can do is shake my head, and hope you get a huge fine at the very least - for shooting at a Bald Eagle!!

[zant]

Eat it and burn the carcass and feathers(and yes Virginia,it does taste like chicken).

[Alice In TX/MO]

If you really were a retired wildlife biologist, you'd know that bald eagles eat carrion. Would you eat a turkey vulture? I think not.

[country_wife]

Originally Posted by Rose

If you really were a retired wildlife biologist, you'd know that bald eagles eat carrion. Would you eat a turkey vulture? I think not.

I only eat dead stuff, does that make me a carrion eater, too?

[DocM]

Like Chuck, some of you have no sense of humor. It's like an epidemic around here. Lighten up people. If I were going to shoot it, I would have. If it comes back.. well, as one poster said, it may be diseased, or injured. There's actually a renowned wildlife rehabilitation center right down the road.

I simply found it quite odd that it was standing in my chicken yard.

Federal Fisheries? Yeah, me too. 18 years. Still consulting. Likely we've had contact, as scary as that thought is.....

[radiofish]

DocM - well I have been to the USFWS Regional Office in Portland, Oregon. I worked mostly out of then the CCFRO - Coastal California Fisheries Rescource Office/ Arcata, California. My fish hatchery work was mostly with the California Dept. of Fish and Game. I had 13 years on the job, before I was mangled in an industrial boating accident at work.

My neighbors had me looking at their ponds the other day for rearing trout....

Just remember that harassing, or just expending ordinance downrange in the general direction of a Bald Eagle is Verboten/ Forbidden under Federal Law!!

[Jen H]

I actually watched a bald eagle take 2 of my hens. There wasn't anything I could do about it, it happened so quick.

Im, uh, not gonna comment on what bald eagle does or does not taste like, but the chickens immediately got moved to an area with more bushes and trees to hide under while I built them a covered pen.

[DocM]

If she comes back and stands in my yard, I'll probably expend more ordinance in her direction. Better I condition her to look for new digs or one of my crazy neighbors will pick her off as a trophy. And just like the cougar I had "dogged" earlier this summer, nobody (higher up) will care. One of the benefits of the job.

[FourDeuce]

I keep bottle rockets around for the hawks that like to come after my chickens and guineas. I know the wildlife laws say we're not supposed to even harass them, but they're also not supposed to be killing our birds either.

BTW, from the posts, it doesn't sound like some people have been paying attention to what chickens eat. From watching my chickens, there isn't much they WON'T eat. I flipped over a hay bale once and found a bunch of baby mice(with a few grown mice). The chickens came running over and gobbled them down like candy. If they can't eat a larger mouse whole, they'll peck and tear at it until it's "bite-sized". And they'll eat dead things they find lying around, too(if they can get it in their beaks).