Saturday, January 05, 2013
Eagle Day at Smithville Lake
I went to the golf course to listen to a talk about raptors. They had a bald eagle, a golden eagle and some falcons and hawks. They were all birds that could not fly any longer and were used at teaching sessions like this. The place was packed. Later there were scopes set up at the lake but the eagles were so far away you could only see two in a tree and not very well. These pictures are Miss Moose (bald eagle) and Goldy, the golden eagle.
The bald eagle was found fallen out of a pine tree at Yellowstone, she had eaten some poison meat that was used to kill coyotes. She broke her wing in 8 places and has arthiritis so bad she can't fly, they figure she is at least 24. The golden eagle ate something with lead bullets and it attacked her brain, she can only fly about 8 feet and then she loses her balance.
Please if you are gonna hunt use lead free bullets, as the eagles sometimes eat the meat that has been left and they get lead poisoning from the bullets.