This came from a gentleman who runs a 2,000-acre corn farm up around Barron, WI, not far from Oshkosh. He used to fly F-4Es and F-16s for the Guard and participated in the first Gulf War. His story: I went out to plant corn for a bit, to finish a field before tomorrow morning and witnessed 'The Great Battle'. A golden eagle -- big, with about a six-foot wingspan - flew right in front of the tractor. It was being chased by three crows that were continually dive bombing it and pecking at it. The crows do this because the eagles rob their nests when they find them. At any rate, the eagle banked hard right in one evasive maneuver, then landed in the field about 100 feet from the tractor. This eagle stood about 3 feet tall. The crows all landed too and took up positions around the eagle at 120 degrees apart, but kept their distance at about 20 feet from the big bird. The eagle would take a couple steps towards one of the crows and they'd hop backwards and forward to keep their distance. Then the reinforcement showed up. I happened to spot the eagle's mate hurtling down out of the sky at what appeared to be approximately Mach 1.5. Just before impact, the eagle on the ground took flight, (obviously a coordinated tactic; probably pre-briefed) and the three crows that were watching the grounded eagle also took flight -- thinking they were going to get in some more pecking on the big bird. The first crow being targeted by the diving eagle never stood a snowball's chance in hell. There was a mid-air explosion of black feathers, and that crow was done. The diving eagle then banked hard left in what had to be a 9G climbing turn, using the energy it had accumulated in the dive, and hit crow #2 less than two seconds later. Another crow dead. The grounded eagle, which was now airborne and had an altitude advantage on the remaining crow that was streaking eastward in full burner, made a short dive, then banked hard right when the escaping crow tried to evade the hit. It didn't work - crow #3 bit the dust at about 20 feet AGL. This aerial battle was better than any air show I've been to, including the War Birds show at Oshkosh. The two eagles ripped the crows apart, and ate them on the ground; and, as I got closer and closer working my way across the field, I passed within 20 feet of one of them as it ate its catch. It stopped and looked at me as I went by, and you could see in the look of that bird that it knew who's Boss of the Sky. What a beautiful bird! I loved it. Not only did they kill their enemy, they ate them. One of the best Fighter Pilot stories I've seen in a long time.
Yeah. the pics were there initially, but for some reason they disappeared over night. Seems that whenever you copy a e mail and then post it elsewhere the pics seem to transfer for a short while then disappear. These were two awesome looking raptors for sure.
The best way is to save the pics from their source onto you device, save/download the pics from the e-mail onto your PC, then post the text and upload the pics from your PC into the post. When you copy the e-mail with images it only uploads a link to the pics in the e-mail's temporary storage. Once that storage is cleared the link no longer works. If you save the pics on your PC then upload them it makes a copy of the pic on the FHC server. KaptJaq EDIT: This will work if your images are on most of the social media sites also. If you post a link to an image that only you have permission to see on the social media site then you will see it in your post but nobody else will. If you post a link to an image that is shared with friends or everybody on that site then they will see it if they are logged into the site but others will not. In order that everybody can see the image now and in the future it is probably best that there is a copy of that image uploaded to the FHC server as stated above. Please make sure there are no copyright problems before you upload it. Grizzly Adam , the Tech Admin, might want to comment on this...
That is an awesome story. I could envision the scene in my mind and was cheering on the mate as he/she came to the rescue. Hey, and who could help but chuckle at the "pre-briefed" comment?
Was watching the SW Florida Eagle cam last evening. That pair have been busy rebuilding their nest in prep for the upcoming nesting season. Camera operator caught the pair mating in the nest tree. I love watching my eagle cams as they go thru their nesting season. Fascinating to watch. Gives you a new respect for these Raptors.
That's a bit odd though, golden eagles being in eastern Wisconsin. They do winter in western Wisconsin, but are pretty rare when the time corn is being planted. Cool story though. I always find it odd that raptors allow crows to harass them as much as they do. I guess it's that numbers thing.
Not to derail, but on a somewhat similar subject. I have had the experience of watching 2 eagles raise their young over 3 summers about a mile from the house and got some great pics. Unfortunately the pair has either moved on from the nest or something happened to one of them as they havnt been there for about 3 summers now. This one was great to watch. Mom and Dad with Junior on the same tree. One of the parents showed up with a fish (bottom branch) but wasnt sharing with Junior who was voicing its opinion. Eventually the oarent finished the fish and flew back to the same rock you see in my avatar, looked back at junior as if to say-your old enough, time to get your own
