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Shouldn't the Eagle be able to kick the osprey's ass?

Easily, but the Bald Eagle ain't quite the King of the Hill... Ever watch a Golden Eagle chase and scare the shit out of a Bald? I have!! Goldens make Balds look small.


Edit: The Golden Eagle was probably a adult (possibly female) chasing a youngish Bald Eagle. Old enough to have the white head and tail feathers but not fully grown.
 
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Easily, but the Bald Eagle ain't quite the King of the Hill... Ever watch a Golden Eagle chase and scare the shit out of a Bald? I have!! Goldens make Balds look small.

Can’t say I have. Bald eagles everywhere where I grew up. Don’t see any in the city now unless I go to the zoo.
 
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Ospreys are typically more abundant where we live so a couple might chase an eagle and they are a bit smaller and seem to maneuver better from what I see. Cool to see that go at it, the osprey always seems to chase the eagles off from why I see, does not seem to make sense though.
 
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Ospreys are typically more abundant where we live so a couple might chase an eagle and they are a bit smaller and seem to maneuver better from what I see. Cool to see that go at it, the osprey always seems to chase the eagles off from why I see, does not seem to make sense though.

If the Eagle comes anywhere near the Osprey's nest they will defend it fiercely.. Otherwise the Osprey won't intentionally tangle with a full grown Bald Eagle. We have Osprey, Bald, and Golden Eagles in the mountains and valleys here. On any given day there is a high likelihood that at least one of them can be seen within a few miles from home.
 
If the Eagle comes anywhere near the Osprey's nest they will defend it fiercely.. Otherwise the Osprey won't intentionally tangle with a full grown Bald Eagle. We have Osprey, Bald, and Golden Eagles in the mountains and valleys here. On any given day there is a high likelihood that at least one of them can be seen within a few miles from home.

Hey I heard that golden eagles taste like chicken….
 
Hey I heard that golden eagles taste like chicken….

They're both meat eaters!! Fresh flesh or rotting makes no difference to either bird!!

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planted 2 rows of 50 each asparagus, 2 varieties 6 years ago as 2 year old crown roots. they are taller than me this year and looking healthy going to seed.
no maintenance/weeding after the first/second year, just plant and wait. first 3 years its suggested to leave them to just grow but the 4th year your good to pick since the roots have established themselves.
think I spent about $50 for 100 crowns and they should last about 30 years until the plant dies out.
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They're both meat eaters!! Fresh flesh or rotting makes no difference to either bird!!

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I've seen where a Golden eagle killed a small wild pig at the ranch and did a perfect skinning job on it, just pealing the hid off wrong side out. Then later he caught to grey squirrels and had them laying together ready for his lunch.
 
Easily, but the Bald Eagle ain't quite the King of the Hill... Ever watch a Golden Eagle chase and scare the shit out of a Bald? I have!! Goldens make Balds look small.

Comparing a Golden eagle to a Bald eagle is like comparing a F16 to a Cessna.
The Bald eagle is an opportunist, adept at stealing the Osprey's hard work, or scrounging whatever real predators leave behind.
The Golden eagle, on the other hand, is a winged terror, a true predator, fierce, and fast . . . .
They are both about the same size, with the females of both species being the larger birds, they have a different profile in flight however.
We have many Bald eagles here on the northwest coast, and many Golden eagles inland.
Always a pleasure to see either species doing what they do best.
 
Comparing a Golden eagle to a Bald eagle is like comparing a F16 to a Cessna.
The Bald eagle is an opportunist, adept at stealing the Osprey's hard work, or scrounging whatever real predators leave behind.
The Golden eagle, on the other hand, is a winged terror, a true predator, fierce, and fast . . . .
They are both about the same size, with the females of both species being the larger birds, they have a different profile in flight however.
We have many Bald eagles here on the northwest coast, and many Golden eagles inland.
Always a pleasure to see either species doing what they do best.

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Let me break out my decoder ring for this one...

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planted 2 rows of 50 each asparagus, 2 varieties 6 years ago as 2 year old crown roots. they are taller than me this year and looking healthy going to seed.
no maintenance/weeding after the first/second year, just plant and wait. first 3 years its suggested to leave them to just grow but the 4th year your good to pick since the roots have established themselves.
think I spent about $50 for 100 crowns and they should last about 30 years until the plant dies out.
View attachment 339996

Your pee will smell for weeks eating all that asparagus!
 
Shouldn't the Eagle be able to kick the osprey's ass?

Hard to say - the eagle has the size, but the osprey has the speed and accuracy. Watching both hunt at the lake frequently, the osprey has 2x the speed and agility that the bald eagle has. In that photo, the osprey wasn't defending its nest, but rather wanted to perch in the ghost tree. It was annoying the eagle to the point where the eagle left.

The bald eagle, at least the ones around here, tend to be more of a pacifist anyways. They are frequently antagonized by smaller birds (much smaller than osprey). Here's the same eagle with a barn swallow (I think, it is hard to tell) flying and jumping on the eagle's back to get it to fly away. The eagle was only near the water for ~10 seconds and the barn swallows were all over it (two actually, only one in the photo).

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Around here, the Osprey rule the lakes... they may not kill the eagle, but they certainly torment the shit out of it and get it to leave. Here's the same one getting bumped off his perch after the Osprey smacked it in the head at ~45 mph.
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I don't think it's a territory thing but a hunting one. The bald eagles are lazy fuckers and will try to steal food rather than catch their own. This means that a successful hunt of the osprey can become a quick meal for the eagle. That said, the Osprey in this area have about a 70-80% success rate for their hunts and snag fish with relative ease!

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We frequently hear the slap of the water and then see an Osprey fly overhead with a fish in claw... it's rare you hear two slaps of the water.
 
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Comparing a Golden eagle to a Bald eagle is like comparing a F16 to a Cessna.
The Bald eagle is an opportunist, adept at stealing the Osprey's hard work, or scrounging whatever real predators leave behind.
The Golden eagle, on the other hand, is a winged terror, a true predator, fierce, and fast . . . .
They are both about the same size, with the females of both species being the larger birds, they have a different profile in flight however.
We have many Bald eagles here on the northwest coast, and many Golden eagles inland.
Always a pleasure to see either species doing what they do best.
I suppose the Bald I saw being chased off by the Golden could have been a youngster, or maybe it was a female Golden chasing off a male Bald.

Both eagles use scavenging as a means of food. I have seen Goldens happily munching on road killed deer within 5 feet of the road.. I've also seen a Bald swoop down and grab a lamb and fly off with it, around here they're also know to go after peoples pet dogs and cats. So to say one is any more of a predator than the other is kind of misleading. Goldens are known to go after larger prey and don't give up as easily as a Bald Eagle, according to what I've read.
 
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I took this pic from a slow moving car, not bad considering. We have wild burros in our area. This one was just standing in the street like a donkey. Unfortunately, people feed them. So they're not afraid of people. They get hit by cars (and trains) all the time. A friend of mine totaled his car hitting one at around 50mph. Recently there was a pack of them hanging out on some train tracks. Didn't end up well...


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Not my pic, but funny to those that hate 'Jeep ducking'. Reminds me of a time I left a pack of gummy bears on my dresser, had exposure to sunlight. I ended up with a multi-colored gummy blob. I let it cool down and it tasted just fine.