I almost had a heart attack!

[Alaska animal lover]

Today was the first day my babies played in their run. They will be five weeks on Monday. They were having a great time, it's a beautiful day here. They were outside for about 2 hours, I was putzing around the yard, keeping an eye on them.
Then the Swallows in the area all started chirping really loud and took off flying, I looked up and there were two huge Bald Eagles about 100 ft. up circling my yard.

So, many thoughts went through my head as I ran toward the coop. {Could I get the gun fast enough? Could I hit a flying eagle?Am I crazy that's illegal! Get the chicks in the coop!}
I know it's really, really illegal to kill eagles, but hey I was in panic mode,lol! So my chicks thought I was trying to kill them, as I tried to get them in the coop, those little buggers are fast!
Thank God for the Swallows letting me know something was wrong.
Thanks for listening

 

[hensdeliverthegoods]

Scary moment, but how cool you live in a place where there are bald eagles! I guess putting netting over the top of the run wouldn't really stop something as powerful as a bald eagle, would it?

Ya might want to put out some seed for your "watch" swallows....

 

[ravenfeathers]

Quote:
that won't work: swallows only eat flying insects.

wow, that sounds seriously scary (and COOL!) honestly, as a rabid birder, i'd've probably run for my binoculars before realizing that my chickens were about to be lunch. i'm just an idiot that way.

 

[Kessidy]

That is scary. Glad it all turned out ok.

 

[Alaska animal lover]

Well, really any other day before I got chickens, it would have been awesome. I do love eagles, but I can see our future relationship getting a little rocky lol.
I will have to put something over the run, I just thought I had a little more time.
I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I thought I could scare the eagles away by yelling at them.

It dosen't seem to stop them from swooping down and taking fish out of the river when there are tons of people around, why should they care about me? And really, what would I have done? Jumped on it's back? Probably.

 

[jdr250]

You thought quickly, I'm the worst person to have in an emergency I do stupid stuff. One time my hubby and I were walking in the woods with my MIM's dog (little 5lb terrier). Well it was a bad drought the creek was dried up and this hawk decided that the dog was going to be dinner. As it's wing hit me in the face the dog moved and it missed. Well miss emergency professional

I grab the dog and start running now the hawk is chasing me cause I'm holding dinner my poor hubby is trying to make me put the dog down, the dog has decided he can take the hawk so he's growling and snarling, and I'm picturing my MIL sitting on her porch and seeing the hawk fly over with her beloved Max in it's talons so I keep going. The hawk lands on a log right in front of me screeching, my hubby beans it with a rock it falls over and I hightail it to the truck. I get in just as the stunned bird lifts off, to come back in for another assault. Well the whole way home my hubby and I are taking turns yelling at each other. He's saying that I should have let the dog go, cause if it's me or the dog it should have been the dog. Me saying that the poor hawk was just hungry and probably had babies it needed to feed and he goes and hits it with a rock. I think the only one that enjoyed the situation was the dog, he was bouncing all over wagging his tail looking mighty proud like he took on the hawk single handedly LOL. Well now I have St. Bernards and Mastiffs so if a hawk comes again it can't lift them and worst case scenario neither can I

 

[ravenfeathers]

Quote:
it's only really embarrassing if you say something daft like "shoo!" or, even worse "GO HOME!" i may or may not have once told a black bear outside my door to go home. *twiddles toe in the dust*

 

[Alaska animal lover]

jdr250 and ravenfeathers that is so funny. I would have done the same thing jdr250, no way would I have let it get the dog!
ravenfeathers, I was waving my arms around, yelling "go away" .......................................Yeah, that
helped.

Oh and I can see me and my DH having the same argument.
DH "It was trying to attack you!"
ME "It's just a little bird, you didn't have to hurt it, I was doing fine on my own!"

Oh yeah, I can totally see us doing that.

 

[Lea71]

How scary!!! Thank goodness you looked up. We have lots of hawks and a few eagles in our area and I'm planning on making the run completely enclosed....I would be so heartbroken if one of my girls got swooped away. Thank goodness it all turned out well.

 

[kodiakchicken]

<--- all of the above had me rolling!

AK Animal- We have TONS of eagles here in Kodiak (remember the fish gut truck incident a few months ago?). They are always circling overhead when we let the peepers out. So far none of them have been brave enough to come close but I always keep a closer eye on the sky than the ground. I have noticed that the last few times we've had the chicks in the yard the crows start gathering and really raise a racket, so watch out for them. I would have no qualms about popping a couple crows. The eagles don't like people so are more hesitant but once they start a dive it would be like having a mack truck hit you if you got in the way.

"it's only really embarrassing if you say something daft like "shoo!" or, even worse "GO HOME!" i may or may not have once told a black bear outside my door to go home."

Ravenfeathers - I work in the bush in the summer and last year at one of the cabins I was staying in I opened the bunkhouse door every morning to a different Kodiak brown bear. I really felt stupid the morning I was standing on the deck, clapping my hands and yelling "go on, get out of here" at a big three year old who was walking by and he didn't even have the courtesy to slow down and acknowledge me! Just glanced over his shoulder with a look like, "lady, you really need a life" and kept ambling on!!!

I'm sure all of us humans are quite entertaining to the animal world!