doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Eagle Population in Ohio......................

Last night at our monthly club meeting, our game consultant told us that this year in Ohio there were 184 nests and 222 fledglings born and that the population continues to grow in Ohio. They also have been/will be taken off of the Federal endangered species list.

I heard the young ones taste just like chicken.

All the birds of prey numbers are up - its the tweedie birds numbers that are down. Dem hawks are killin' everything in sight.
A short season, should get the balance righted tho'.

Btw, Mrs. Farmer Jones has been shooting these birds of prey without a tag(hehehe) for years. Hawks circling her hen house, and the loss of her egg money makes blood shoot from her eyes!
So when you hear a loud bang.

A woman in PA that had a bunch of quail in johnny houses tried that too, Lowell. As I recall, the fine was $1,000 a bird, for 100+ birds. Darned expensive bag, I'd say.

Jimmy,
It was my understanding that the Bald Eagle was taken off the endangered species list a while ago.
Every once in a while I will see one near the house, and a couple of years ago one was circling over my neighbors house, caught the updraft and within a minute was almost out of sight. A beautiful bird but mostly a carrion eater, not like it's cousin the Golden Eagle.

When it comes to hawks, ignorance is bliss, nearly everyone calls them chicken hawks, why, because they hang out near chicken yards, not for the chickens but for the rats and mice. Most chickens are too big for a hawk to kill, except for banties.
The biggest concern would be foxes, stray dogs and if chickens are left out at night, Great Horned Owls, most just take the heads off. I've seen them do this to pen raised pheasants.

I am not fond of owl. Maybe a sweeter marinade would kill the bitter taste.

The old chef Justin Wilson was makeing gumbo on TV on day and he told a story about makeing gumbo with owl. When asked what it tasted like he said hawk.
When turist came to Hanines Alaska each year they always asked where the best place was to see the Bald eagles(we had thousands) and we always told them to try the dump. They are wonderful birds but sometimes catch a fish way to big for them and the fish ends up drowning them as they can't release their talon unless they can apply downward pressure.

Then what specie of fish would make the best eagle decoy? Justin Wilson explained the use of the "grin" to knock high flying doves out of the air. He tells about once using his mother in law to grin doves on an opening day shoot. He had to discontinue using her because she was tearing the birds up too badly. Murphy

In one of his books, Steve Bodio wrote of eating a road-killed hawk. It was "not bad" according to him. Steve is a simply wonderful cook, however, and could likely make barnyard rats taste good.

Writing doesn't pay much these days, but, I would take that experience as a signal I needed a different set of more lucrative job skills.
Best,
Ted