SCHIESS: Aggressive eagles take on lucky Sage Grouse

After sitting for two hours listening to male sage grouse with love on their mind, I counted 47 males and six females. I had just taken a few pictures when most exploded off the ground flying in all directions in the stiff wind.

“Not again; dang it all to heck!!!!!” I said out loud as a Golden eagle sliced past my window headed for one of the two males still on the ground.

The grouse took off just as the eagle was blown off course by the strong southwest wind making the huge raptor grab for the tail feathers of the lucky chicken. The unlucky eagle sat in a patch of tall grass surveying the nearby small scrub sagebrush for about 20 minutes until another eagle showed up just as the sun broke through the eastern clouds.

I waited until the eagles left looking to harvest another unlucky morsel before I checked the target area of the attack. Six feathers lay tangled in the grass and sage. Most were back feathers from the lucky chicken but one was the beautiful black-tipped-in-white ones from the tail.

Once back in the truck, I tried to follow the two eagles to see if they would be able to find a meal but I only saw them afar off skimming the tops of the sage. I did find an area where a grouse had been harvested by some type of predator and in the soft sandy dirt at the kill site I was able to recognize both eagle and raven tracks.

This happened last Friday. On Thursday morning, I had been at another lek watching the males making fools of themselves for two females. Three ravens flew over and they did not miss a move as they puffed out their chests, fought with each other and spread their tail feathers trying to entice a hen to choose them to be a father of one of her children.

A pair of Northern harriers buzzed the lek several times and the action continued as if the small raptors were a couple of songbirds admiring the dancing. Then all of a sudden the dancing stopped, all the grouse squatted imitating the surrounding rocks. I started searching the skies when over the ridge came a Bald eagle and 17 male and two female grouse took off in a hurry.

A lone grouse remained under a sage brush while the bald flew over it twice. Finally the eagle made an agnostic attack, nothing like its cousin — the “great golden hunter harvester” eagle does — then landed on a rock as the grouse left.

After perching on a rock it finally left and it was probably the one feeding on a road killed jack rabbit that I saw on my way to look for some burrowing owls.

In years past I have seen bald eagles harass sage grouse, but never harvest one as they are scavengers and not hunters and killers. The will let other predators harvest critters and then steal the dead or wounded. That is why Ben Franklin was so opposed to having the American Bald eagle as the national bird because they “are thieves and unsavory characters.”

On the other hand, the golden eagle loves to hunt and kill anything deemed worthy of a meal. This last winter I watched as two of them flushed and killed a jack rabbit and I have seen them kill a Canada goose, sage grouse and sharp-tailed grouse.

I feel extremely lucky to have witnessed these two real life episodes last week and will continue to be where I can see them again. If I am lucky enough to record the happenings, you may read about it; if I don’t get pictures, you won’t know what I have observed as we live in a “doubting Thomas” age and without pictures, it must not have happened.

“If the wind blows a tree down on your house and you sleep through it, did its fall make a noise?”