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I think that a pair of bald eagles are building a nest across the water from our house. I noticed them working the river, cruising up and down on the hunt for the past couple of months but today I saw something unusual. They were landing in the trees around my property and testing dead branches with their weight, sort of squirming around and then taking flight while still holding onto the dead branch which snapped it clean off. Then they flew down the river a couple of hundred meters with the dead branches before returning for more.
Other birds pick up sticks and other materials from the ground to make their nests but the eagle snaps them clean off the tree, no descending to the ground for these majestic birds.

Surfpirate 9 May 11
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Yeah, they would be nesting around this time year up in the Northern Hemisphere considering it now late Autumn -early Summer.
Our huge Wedge-tailed Eagles never descend to the ground to collect twigs for their often massive nests, considering an Aussie Wedge-tailed Eagle is about 2-3 times bigger than the Fish-eating Bald Eagle of the north American Continent.
But our 'Wedgies' ( as they are commonly called) with go down to the ground to collect scraps of wool ( fleeces) that has been 'snagged' in bushes as sheep have moved past to line their nests.
About 3 weeks ago, on her last visit to my house for a free snack and some pats, etc, Lady E, the Wedge-tailed Eagle was kind enough to allow me to place her on set of bathroom scales ( it cost me a nice thick Lamb Chop btw but well worth it though) and she weighed in at nice healthy 16.5 Kilograms, a good weight for one her size and age.

Triphid Level 9 May 12, 2020
1

How beautiful! On days I see an eagle I think it is somehow a lucky day...it always makes my day.

The really are the kings of the sky, other birds make way when the eagles show up, even the swans get nervous and group together.

@Surfpirate I'd love to see what your eagle would do if one of ours turned up [en.m.wikipedia.org]

@Triphid once raised one which still returns to see him, be fed & express affection by allowing physical contact.

@FrayedBear Wow handsome. Wish I had seen one when I was there in your area.

@EyesThatSmile there are some half decent YouTube videos but not the same as reality - particularly whenyouthink your car may hit one before it achieves sufficient height to clear you.

@EyesThatSmile I thought you mightlike to see these, they are the only times that Lady E has allowed me to actually photograph her, any other time even she a hint of a camera around the place she just flies away and returns a day or two later instead.

@FrayedBear That's a bloody big eagle, you must have lost a lot of kids in the school playground with eagles like that around. 😀

@Surfpirate They can kill a big 6' roo in one swoop by simply crushing claw through skull as it swoops through.
I had the joy, and scare, of having one take off from a paddock as I drove past a few months ago. I thought that it was not going to clear the car but obviously its spatial acuity was far better than mine - it passed about 20' in front and 3 feet above the car from a take off about 40 metres on my left. I was probably doing 90klms per hour. Sadly no video was on I never replaced it a year ago.
Tony tells of one that flew into a truck cab!

@Triphid Fantastic Tony. Like I say I envy your experience & privilege.

@FrayedBear No, FrayedBear, it flew into the Driver's Cab of an 80 Class Diesel-Electric Locomotive while the train was still travelling at 80 kilometres an hour.
Needless to say, the Crew abandoned the cab and finished the journey by driving from the rear( second) cab.
Though it had smashed through windscreen, the Eagle survived to fly another day AFTER we had arrived in Broken Hill and managed to get a Vet to sedate it and take it to the Vet Clinic.
Some 'wag' with a sense of humour actualy painted the word "Eagle" on the sides of the 80 Class Loco and after that Loco 8031 was always know, affectionately,as the Eagle.

@Triphid Thanks for the correction. Is it the first time that an eagle has been railroaded? Some of our pollies need railroading to the middle of the Nullarbor & leaving with a pint of water!

@FrayedBear First time I ever knew of an Eagle hit a Loco, but have seen plenty of times the results of Locos and animals like Emus, Sheep, Cattle, Horses, Humans, Cars, Trucks, Buses and even the odd Camel after they've played 'chicken' with 130 tons of Locomotive pulling 2,500+ tonnes of frieght along at speeds of 80+ kilometres an hour.
9 times out 10 the 'animal,' etc, does NOT survive but the Loco always does.

@Triphid Often used for visual effect & to satisfy blood lust in many Hollywood movies!

@FrayedBear Yeah, SOME of what they show in movies can be quite factual but are nowhere near as gory and sicken as it is in real life.
We had an 'episode' once of a bloke, estimated at being around late Teens early 20's ( could ONLY estimate age because of the mess he was made into btw) who decided to 'show off' to his mates and jump over a moving Freight train on a 185cc Yamaha trail-bike.
Both him and the bike were literally SPLATTERED across two freight containers and also in between them both, we searched the area of the 'impact site' for over a 500 metre radius and could not find either his head or crash helmet.

@Triphid Wow. Quite a story. Amazing birds, nonetheless.

@Triphid messy. I used to now an ambo who was at Granville, he couldn't go back to the job & ended up a bus driver.

@FrayedBear One of the reasons why I went from being a nurse to the railways ( final job btw) was because it was heart-breaking to see little children suffering and dying due to parental neglect.
But even that was over-shadowed by the utter carnage that I saw at collisions, etc, between trains and people/cars and the like.
Though I must admit we did have the odd funny one from time to time, like when the Indian Pacific arrived at the Station one morning and I was summoned down to 'help' get a lady free from the toilet where her bum had gotten stuck.
She had gotten out of the shower to attend to a 'call of nature and while being wet all over the train had to brake suddenly and her nether region had become firmly wedged in.
She asked me IF I could doanything to help her and me thinking, quite quickly, looked to see that she was holding a Steston type hat over her lap so I just said to her, " Sure, I can get you out of this mess BUT I don't think there's much I can do about the cowboy though, I reckon he's definitely a goner."
Never saw anyone laugh as much as she did though after she heard that.

@Triphid So how did you get her bum out or did your quick repartee shake her loose? LMAO

@Triphid I reckon that you should submit that to "Crap Religious "Art"" or st lest corny jokes! It's a ripper. 😁

@FrayedBear Nope, warmed up a big tub of Vaseline, poured it around her bum and then got her to put her arms around me and mine around her and just gently wriggled her around until she 'popped' free.

@FrayedBear No M8 that is a 100% True fact, mind you she was quite a bit embarrased (or should one say 'em-bare- arsed'😉 at the time though.

@Triphid Wonder if it persuaded her to slim down?

@FrayedBear Actually she was aboutv in her mid- to late Twenties, quite slim and well toned phiscally so her weight had very little do with the circumstances in my opinion.

@Triphid lol I had visions of a portly middle aged momma & so was having conflict with her response to your joke! 😁

0

What a great sight!

I see them at least a dozen times a day now, the nest must be pretty close but getting a decent pic is difficult.

@Surfpirate Yeah, we see the odd one here too, but very rarely.

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