We have lots of bald eagles around here. Campinspecter installed a mono-filament line web from our clothesline to the fence. It protects our small dogs from becoming a tempting meal. I don't think eagles could pack them off but they would do a lot of damage to the dogs. The mono-filament web is enough to disrupt the flight path of the eagles but not enough to interrupt the view.
Always hear the story of a tourist loosing a little dog to an eagle here. not sure it's true, but it sure is plausible .
The first time I ever saw a bald eagle we were fishing on the Maurice river, it dove into the river and pulled out an otter. That was the first I ever saw an otter, believe it or not.
We had a big snowy owl that would hang around here. Had a 7 pound Mexican dog that lived to be 17. Tried to have her go out with the big dogs so the owl wouldn't get her. She was black and never got attacked except by our Tom cat!
Banning DDT seems to be one of the changes that helped their comeback . Wild Turkeys have made an even stronger come back.
We were just talking about getting a dog yesterday. It doesn't help that a neighbor likes to feed wild animals. Couple years ago when my son was playing in the front yard a fox walked down the street and couldn't care less that he was there. That was at about the same time a 3 year old had got bitten by a rabid fox at Fort Williams. And my neighbor had the nerve to send me a letter to stop letting my barn cat roam free because she was eating the food she put out for the wild animals (fox, racoon, turkey and deer and whatever else came by)
Take the kids with you when you pick out your pet. You want one that is attracted to the kids and could care less if the kid falls on it etc. Some kids and dogs bond right off. Some dogs don't like kids and you want to know that before you bring it into your home. We have labs. I could take anything out of their mouths and the won't even growl. They just love the grandchildren. Any vermin that comes in the yard is chased off, that is unless it has the misfortune of getting caught. This year, I'm letting the dog in my garden. Had issues with a groundhog.
Never saw one till about 10 years ago. Now I see them almost daily. Have also seen 2 golden eagles. The last 10 years we have seen a massive predator migration into this area. Never saw bear, coyotes, fisher or otters. Now we are polluted with them.
We have them in this area, always nice to see, they'll sit in the dead tree by the brook doing some hunting.
I had some discussions with a bird rehabilitation center and they felt that the Eagles would not be able to pack our Rat Terriers which are between 10 and 14 lbs but they also felt that in a period of food scarcity that an attack was quite possible, but even if the eagle could not pack the small dog that the attack would still prove to be fatal. They suggested the star burst of mono filament fishing line would disrupt the flight path and would discourage any such attacks. Eagles have extremely good eye sight and can see the fishing line from a great distance away.
