Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How much will it cost you to shoot a Bald Eagle?

I saw a bald drop like a bolt from the sky and killed a fox right in front of me once—another time I saw one fly up under a goose roll over and plucked it right outta the sky. Around the 15 of March they will return locally and it’s not unusual to see 15 on my wolf bait on the ice in the front yard.

They should be classifed as varmints with no closed season right along with hawks and owls.

Found an injured one a couple miles back in the deer woods one day last year. Called up Fish & Game about it, and they referred me to a Falcon Rehab Center. They asked if I could carry it back to the road for them, I respectfully declined.

I dropped them the coordinates. I noticed it was gone on my way back out of the woods. Not sure if they got to it before something else did. I should have followed up on it.

I can see why you go by Blackheart.

For sure. The damned things kill constantly

Heard a Amish farmer once say they don't taste like chicken

There are some, but not many here in Montana.

If the population was high I would apply for a tag myself.

They've pretty well cleaned muskrats right out of the river here. Flyin' coyotes is what they amount to. Feathered vermin. There weren't any around when I was a kid and I wouldn't miss them if they were gone again.

Seen one out in the field chowing down on something turned out to be the farmers beagle

I worry about my little dogs here. Was out in the yard just the other day when one flew over real low. Watched it go by and noticed there were 3 more circling over the neighbors field down the road. There are a lot of them along the rivers and reservoirs here.

30 plus years ago, a neighbor and friend of mine got into enough trouble that the fbi made a visit.
He was out in the machine shed with the big door open when the fed pulled up. They had a visit about issues at hand and when the suit went to leave he said, “by the way, get rid of that thing”. It was a hawk mounted spread eagle on top of the drill press.
That could have been a big deal, but wasn’t on the feds agenda at the time.
He also told me the feds may come around asking questions, I made sure I was home as little as possible.

See many Eagles around my area.....Golden's are more common

Balds spend winters but head north in summer months

Pic..from my pic files yrs ago...shooting p/dogs in a favorite location

Just felt like I was being watched......Hmmm

Turned around & this guy was on a post minding his own business

Snapped two pics & he flew out where all the dead p/dogs were and had lunch

He was one of four Golden's that knew the sound/sight of my '98 Tacoma

Eagles or wolves ? I'll take Eagles any day

Pic

My Bald Eagle cloud-------

Exactly what they're doing with the Lobos (Mexican Gray Wolves) down here right now.

I would not be surprised if the “Missouri officials” are just fishing for info and flat out lying about the gunshot.

I once lived in Salem for a number of years….. half the folks in Salem and most all folks in the country outside Salem just want to be left alone. Most all of those folks know how to keep their mouths shut.

They are not unlike folks in Skidmore.

I once shot a snapping turtle that was killing catfish in my pond….that evening a couple of suspicious and unhappy neighbors knocked on my door….. seems one of their coon dogs went missing…. They pointedly asked if I had shot their dog. I was new in that area…in the county. And was finding out the newcomers were not highly regarded.

Took a few years, but finally got on ok with those folks. Helped that I let the neighbor kids fish in the pond. They gave me a “good report.”

When most people around here still had land lines, my parent's number was only one number different than the one of the main MDC wildlife damage biologists and they would occasionally get calls from people that were trying to reach him. One day they came home and found a message on the answering machine from a farmer who thought he was calling the MDC agent.

The farmer had left a long and colorful message regarding the eagles that were killing his lambs. He made it very clear what he was intending to do in order to remedy the problem.

Dad sympathized with the farmer and didn't want him to get in trouble, so he called him back to let him know that he had left the message at the wrong number and that he probably shouldn't be telling everyone what he planned on doing with the eagles. After venting to Dad about the issue, he finally calmed down and explained that he was tired of losing so many lambs and MDC not doing anything to help him out. I don't know what ever happened with the issue, but it was taking place not too far from the incident in the original post.

I've heard that MDC or the feds one will no pay farmers for stock killed by the eagles, but I don't know if that's true in all cases or not.

Yet windfarms can slice and dice them endlessly.

Dang, what's a Cooper's Hawk cost?

Prison over killing a destructive bird, but kill all the babies you want and you get "celebrated".

MDC is not to be trusted. It is an evil organization that exists merely to collect revenue, not improve habitat or to manage wildlife population.

We have quite a lot of eagles here. They seem to be primarily scavengers and fish eaters. Ravens torment them endlessly. I have seen eagles try to catch a raven, just out of spite, but have not seen one connect.
We are overrun with turkeys. I always thought they would be hard on the turkeys, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Likewise, the geese don't seem to be much affected. I have seen one pluck a duck out of the flock. I have seen them take fish from the ospreys. The osprey learn to keep a low profile after catching a fish. GD