GREAT sighting today..

wow that must have been amazing.. too bad you didnt have a camera[] ive always like bird of prey too..well after dogs and horses

I was in Homer Alaska about a year ago, the place where 90% of all bald eagle magizine pics are taken and there where hundreds of them. They where all in plain sight, some on the beaches of the spit and other just gliding in the air. So cool! My boyfriend didn't think much sence that is the town he grew up in. What a wonderful sight, if you ever want to go somewhere to see bald eagles that's the place to go!

There are more eagles in Alaska than in the whole rest of the USA. Good thing, too! Where I am right now, Cordova,. I get to see them daily. []  Glad to hear they are returning to NY  State!

i am pretty happy about it too...its no biggie for you guys lucky enough to see these birds every day,but for me its a big deal...

 I also heard from a few different sources that some wolves have been released in the nieghborhood to take care of the deer population...my neigh bor has in fact spotted a pair.

i think birds of prey are cool too. i have not ever seen an eagle here. not sure that there are any around here actually, as i am not very knowledgeable about them. i have had 2 close encounters with hawks though.

1) i was mtn biking alone several years ago. i was climbing a hill on an abandoned logging road. i looked to my right and there was a hawk flying along beside me. couldnt have been but about 15ft or so off my right shoulder. it flew along side me for a while and then it was gone. was a pretty cool experience.

2) last week i was on my way home at lunch to take the dogs out. there were several people pulled to the side of the road. i figured there had been an accident. as i got closer there were some people standing near the side of the road at a gravel driveway. in the driveway right at the edge of the road i was on was a hawk. it was just sitting there. it appeared to have injured one of its feet. the people who were standing there were attempting to contact ACC, so i didnt stop. i felt sorry for the bird though.

hey Cycle!,
 that hiking with the hawk is awesome.not som,ething that is going to happen very ofter..they are pretty reserved when it comes to human contact...

 about 10 years ago the eagles started making a comback in these parts.i live close to the Great Sacandaga lake,and they have been hunting fish near the conklingville dam...i really want to go up sometime and watch them fish..tried on several occasions with no luck..

  they also venture down to the Mohawk river to fish and look for kill ...These Bald Eagles have to share air space with some of the ugliest birds known...buzzards...or turkey vultures.. 

yep very rare. i bike at that place very often, and i had seen a hawk in about the same place before. (i think it may have been the same one) anyway, i think it had a nest nearby and may have been "protecting" its little ones. just a theory though, as i said before i know very little about birds. []

it is amazing what you see out in the woods alone. was almost trampled by several deer one morning (was with a couple of friends that day []). have had lots of deer just stop and watch as i ride past though. not sure if they are curious or just so scared they cant move.[] have had lots of encounters with many different kinds of snakes. was a lazy old black snake i used to see a lot on one trail. have had to coax him outta the way on  many occassions. have yet to see a bear (thank god)! have not seen any large cats either. although i have heard some panthers (at least that is what they are called around here, not sure exactly what type of cats they are) at night "crying".

i can do with out the big cats and bears..lol

i had similiar experiences with owls...one was making noise and i started whoooing back and it flew over the shed i was by about 12 feet off the ground over my head....it was pretty cool,but my favorite owl experience happened one early morning..i just told this somewhere..

anyway...my bedroom when i was 15 was detatched from my house...fully furnished,electric...woodstove...pretty cool for a kid...i had this big bubble type picture window on the south side of the room...this was next to the woodstove...late one spring i had the stove out,and the pipes down for cleaning and a bird built a nest where the hole was  and had babies..the hole was blocked on the inside..was a robin i think.anyway..

i woke up early one morning around 4 am or so...the moon was full and casted shadows on my lawn..i walked to the window and put my head into the curvature of the glass...i looked to my left and was face to face with a large owl! i guess at a foot away they would all look large...scared the you know what out of me at first but i was frozen,looking square into its eyes.it must have come in to feed on the chicks...when it took off i did jump a bit...was loud! never forget the moment of staring into its face with the lawn lighted by a bright full moon and the sight of it fliing off over the moonlit ground...

 i am such an idiot..i knew i told this story recently..i should have scrolled up..lol

[sm=biggrin.gif]

Around here you don't see too too many eagles unless you go to a lake.  But when I lived out west there were lots of them.  Up in Kingcome, there is a very tall tree right across the river from my Auntie Helens house and there is always a bald eagle perched on the top branch.  When my cousin Mike was a  little boy he asked my auntie, "Mom, even if that eagle is a boy, do you think I could call him Denise?"  Now people say, Denise is watching, whenever they see an Eagle up in that tree.

I looove raptors!  My dad had a federal raptor permit when I was a teenager, so we always had hawks and owls around our house, in various states of healing. I STILL look for their nests in the late winter/early spring.

We had a screech owl that lived in our house and many red tail hawks over the years. Our barn owls were totally cool! They don't hoot; they have more of a screeching sound they make.

One of my jobs was to cut up the animals we had frozen for them and feed them.  It is amazing to see one feed.  They are so graceful, even in small cages.

How awesome!!!  A few years back DH & I were canoing in Northern WI.  We looked up to see an eagle soaring.  It then started to circle.  The circle kept getting tighter & he was descending.  Next thing we knew he picked a fish from the stream.  He was not more than 10 feet from us.  All I could do was applaud.  It was amazing.