Bald Eagle Encounter

When I was a teenager, I had a close encounter experience with a Bald Eagle. It was the spring of the year. We had wintered the cattle up the canyon that year and did most of the feeding in the "Rye Patch". The cows were starting to calve.

One evening, Dad and I went up the canyon to feed the cows. I was driving the team while Dad was feeding (cutting the strings off of the bales and pushing flakes of hay off of the sleigh). We started feeding as we drove up the draw and around the spring. Then drove around the knoll into the Rye Patch.


As we topped the knoll and looked into the Rye Patch, I called Dad because I could see a bald eagle on the ground up ahead of the team. A large eagle was on top of a newborn calf. The calf was struggling to get away. We were about 25 - 30 yards away.

As we came into the eagle's line of sight, it began to fly away carrying the calf. The eagle rose slowly due to calf's extra weight. It lifted the calf about 10 feet off of the ground as it made to fly away. At that point, it decided the calf was too heavy and dropped it to the ground before flying away to the top of a tree.