Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Those damn murdering bald eagles ...

Brutal, heartless, cruel birds of prey. Killing little bleating lambs for sport and pleasure.

Sheep farmers on the other hand .... nobody likes stinkin sheep farmers, do they? Except Mary of course.

Same state that recently passed a culling law on gray wolves.

I get so confused when mankind tries to rule over mother nature. And the lefties are ALWAYS trying to do it, every aspect of our lives.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/bald-eagles-massacre-sheep

Raptors have done well for years now. Pretty sure they're part of the reason wild turkey populations are struggling.

Emotion and politics have no place in proper wildlife management.

Unfortunately, that all that liberals operate on.

Where is Elmer Kieth when you need him.

eagles, should have a bounty on them

Exactly where are wild turkey populations struggling?

I live thirty minutes from the WTF (Wild Turkey Federation) and have not heard a peep from anyone over there about a struggling turkey population ... wild turkeys are everywhere around here in SC. We set a record harvest this year with some monster birds.

At the same time we have more bald eagles and chicken hawks, red tails and sea hawks, than we've ever had. They're talking about us having so many male baldies that other states are looking to transplant some into their states .... just like they did with the turkeys 100 years ago. Running the diversion canal between the upper and lower lake at Santee Cooper is like walking down Haye Street in 1975 with all the airborne hard dicks lined up looking for patooty in Fayetteville ... there must be 75 baldy males along that canal waiting for fishermen to dump fish guts and heads at the marinas.

I've got a breeding pair on my big pond and the turkeys around here laugh at them. But you should see those birds take a catfish or a carp out of that pond ... it is amazing.

Now, little dogs, pets, feral cats, snakes .... stray chickens, yeah, their lives are always in danger. We recently even had a report of one of the big males taking a spotted fawn along the side of the road as a car was coming upon it and its doe. Someone down the road a mile or two away claims they lost their cocker spaniel to a baldy. A couple of Mexicans who raise gamecocks back in the woods for illegal fights claim that a big male comes into their place and takes their roosters at will .... but what the heck, that cock fighting pisses me off anyways.

There are two more breeding pairs over on the big lake that I know of and more breeding pairs up both rivers that feed the lake ... the bald eagles are doing quite well here in SC ... and so are the turkeys friend.

What hurts turkeys are the yotes and the fireants ... same for the quail. Wild pigs too. They'll eat the heck outta turkey and quail eggs. So we've been puttin' a hurtin' on wild pigs and yotes since they opened up the season on both to 24/7/365.

ETA: seriously, that sheep farmer in Idaho has done something to anger those birds ... they sending him a message. There is more to that story than anyone is letting-on. Eagles live in harmony with humans ... that sheep farmer did something to those birds. And it's not because of the late ice, that's bravo sierra.

Eagles don't live in harmony with humans, facts are they've been known to attach kids and pets. All varmints need killing. I've seen a red tail hawk eating a turkey poult. Our turkey population has been down for some reason the last few years, my guess is it's just a cycle.

Exactly. Hawks, owls and eagles need to be controlled. Our turkey population has decreased by 40% over the last 10 years. NYDEC has reduced our fall season from a two bird limit to one and also cut the length of the season from 7 weeks to 2 weeks in response. Last I heard they are still studying the causes but believe West Nile virus may be killing a significant number off.

So might I ask once again ... where are these turkey populations that are decreasing that some of you speak of?

Be specific if you don't mind. At least name the states and provide some links ... or it didn't frickin' happen boys.

Pesticides, yeah maybe. Fireants, wild pigs and yotes ... yeah, no doubt.

But it's not the birds of prey. So just stop it.

In the meantime I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll call over and talk to a friend of mine higher up at the WTF and see if I can come over for a visit and view his latest population numbers ... perhaps he'll even let me take a picture of his wall. I wanna hear all about these murdering damn bald eagles decimating the turkey populations across the land.

Lol

Like anything else birds of prey need to be hunted. When you see one on every other fence post that’s not good. Pheasants, quail, etc have all but disappeared in places because of to many birds of prey.

Predators are well... Predators.

The nature of things is that eagles, hawks, owls, coyotes, bobcats, and whatever is considered a predator, can and will kill what it can to survive.

It's the way nature works.

When humans involve themselves in too much protection of predators, imbalances occur.

Emotions and politics.

Which of those two motivate you?

I live in western New Jersey farm country, corn and soybean all over with small hardwood ridges covered with oak, hickory and beech trees. Turkey population was pretty large a couple of years ago, I could ride around and see several flocks of 40-50 birds. I haven't seen many birds in the last 3 or 4 years.

We now have bobcats, bears, coyotes, fox, eagles, ospreys, hawks, owls, raccoons and skunks all over my 500 acre gun club down the road about a mile. Heck, I jumped a doe and new born fawn the other day, the next day I jumped the doe and no fawn.

Predators are even killing the feral cats that people dump on our place. It isn't going to get better unless we start doing some predator control.

Armadillos and yotes are hitting our local turkey pops hard.

Nests and poults respectively.

youre wrong. the duck hunting along our river has drastically been altered in quality in the last 8 -10 years. we routinely have eagles perching in trees above decoys, hell i have ahd them dive bomb dekes thinking they were real birds. hawks, owls, eagls all need to be managed through killing just like every other predator

It doesn't take much research to find out turkey populations have been on the decline in several Eastern states over the last 10-20 years.

Lol, Holy fuqk me!

I've never heard of Armadillos eating anything but bugs, might eat the occasional egg I guess. I've caught them by tossing pebbles in front of them, they think it's a bug, just keep tossing them closer to you till you can grab them by the tail. They can't see very well.

I know, right?

Big hawks and great horned owls slaughter turkeys and their poults.

That wouldnt be bleeding fart preservationism and is too logical for big city folks like Screwster.