It is crazy how much eagles can increase the amount of birds we put in the boat. When they start flying my heart starts racing. Every marsh I hunt has a refuge. The eagles know there is always at least one wounded or dead duck in there that is easy pickens. They swoop down and every bird within a half miles goes flying in every direction. Does anybody else have this happen?

Normally the bastards pick my dead birds and drop it back off half breasted.

sent from the marsh

We just shoot them. The only problem is that they taste like owls, which is just slightly better than a gross bec.

My buddy showed me a paper clipping of his grandpa. His grandpa kept getting his baby sheep taken by the eagles. Went to the wardens house multiple times and the warden blew him off. This was the guys livelihood so he shot 3 of them and left them on the wardens doorstep. He got fined $20 for each bird.

The last 3 years I been watching two of them give the ducks and poul'doo's hell!

They run ducks like coonasses in a mud motor!! They are pretty bad ass! Grab a duck out the sky like nothing!!!

I feel like everytime i see eagles around my hunt goes sour. birds wont fly anywhere around em.

we have some falcons around us and to see them pick a teal out of a band mid-flight is one of the coolest things.

Last two yrs n Gibson we had a major problem with eagles. And Todd said it best, they will run the shit out of some coots

They are a huge pain in the ass up here. You get 6 or 8 of em in the trees around your spread you may as well go home. Thick as flys anymore.

I have had the odd duck picked up by them I find they keep the birds down. Not Verry often we see them but when we do they definitely try and get your downed birds. I think if you shoot one here they would put you away for life.

Damn hawk stole a teal from me a couple weeks ago.....and a gator took out one of my herters foam decoys.... Took it totally under water and it popped up broken just behind the head and cracked the head.... sombitch popped out a the water when he released it.... me and my hunting buddy just kinda stared in disbelief..... never seen a gator take a decoy like that....

sent from the former Republic of Texas.

The lakes I've hunted and seen Eagles, they do just what you say. Lake Houmas, Flat Lake in MC, even the WMA. Most Eagles I've seen were in Flat Lake. Counted 6 one morning. They had the coot all skittish and flying from one side the lake to the other.

In Lake Houmas, we'd see an eagle then the coot, with ducks mixed in, would get in a big group very tight. Then when the eagle flew over, they would take off and move.

Never seen one pick up a live or dead bird.

We see about 9 or so on a average weekend.
A lot of young ones

sent from the marsh

Just had 3 juvi bald eagles wed. harrassing the thousand coots in my pond. watched one grab a coot. Its entertaining to watch birds that big do shit with such accuracy

We have them here and they never mess with the live birds that I have seen. They will pick up a dead one pretty regularly but it doesn't bother me too much. We did have one hit a decoy one time. He hit it and actually tried to lift off with it but the weight was hung on hydrilla and he could only get it about three feet out of the water. Hovered there with it for a few seconds and then it slipped out and he flew off, I am sure wondering why that duck was so damn hard!

I go up to Alaska every year. Last trip I thought I seen a guy treading water so I raced over to get him. It was an eagle with a 12 lb salmon trying to swim to shore with it. I have had them grab my stringer of sockeyes while fishing the rivers too. Pretty bold up there.

Thought i would just add to this thread. I was hunting lake Erie today. I shot a blue bill and 1 minute after it hit the water an arctic owl came by and grabbed it. Never seen one before. They look really cool. All of our Marinas are froze. Lake is 33 degrees. These birds are so dumb right now. We are sitting in the boat with the motor running and no blind. Red gas can plain as day. I am just trying to find the divers now. We got all the mallards and blacks around but I have been waiting on that last funny duck. I don't shoot mergansers but I don't understand why the limit is only five up here. It used to be 20. I seen 50,000 today. They are the big common ones. Another gripe I have is with the cormorants. We are not allowed to shoot them yet they eat all of our walleye fry. They are decimating our island greenery with there shit. The odnr said they are experimenting with a spray that thins the lining of the eggs so they will not hatch. I don't get it.