Birds of Prey !!!

**Shadam** · 04-15-2009, 08:04 PM

For the third year strait we've stumbled onto these. this is hidden bowl Lake Lousy today 15/04/09 All because I decided to boot pack up a bit higher to get over a convex roller entry.

Kicking horse, molars, feb "08

Fernie 2000 ridge, early april "07. It wasn't there the day before. We have several more of these incidents and the lake lousy shots have the bird sitting in the snow stalking its prey and some other attacks(???) that we can't describe, you decide wot happened. Pm myself or huckin eh for the full gallery. This was to be possibly our last tour of the season and yet again my drunken snowboarder up tracks find these gems.

**The Gnarwhale** · 04-15-2009, 08:44 PM

Those are pretty rad.

One time I came back to the tarp after a day of slaying trout along a string of alpine lakes. A pile of guts and a lot of splattered blood had mysteriously appeared between the tarp and the "kitchen." A little sleuthing yielded a few scaps of marmot fur and one golden eagle feather.

**Nathan Explosion** · 04-15-2009, 08:47 PM

If any of you guys have been to the Busch Gardens in VA, they have a habitat for injured flightless eagles. I was there on a family trip, I think I was 8, and some hapless rabbit made the mistake of hopping his way into the home of 9 bald eagles. They didn't need wings to make short work of him. Still one of the most amazing things I've seen in my life, amazingly intelligent animals.

**flyandski365** · 04-15-2009, 09:01 PM

Awesome shots, I'd love to see the rest of them. Seeing those wing prints in the snow is pretty amazing.

L7 · 04-15-2009, 09:38 PM

Owls I would guess. I've seen a few under the lifts at the Lake. Spring time, fresh snow, happy little bunny tracks and WHAM

**splat** · 04-15-2009, 09:57 PM

Klingon Bird of Prey. Probably a small scout ship.
Wear a tinfoil hat when outdoors.
Liquid sky.

**brutah** · 04-15-2009, 10:09 PM

could be owls, either a great horned or a great gray owl (the only owls found in that area this time of year that are even close to the size of those imprints). I would still go with a raptor. that's solely based on how the feathers at the end of the wing are spread out, which is seen in raptors, whereas, owls wings are more rounded. Hard to pinpoint which raptor or even narrow it down without being able to tell the specific size of the imprints and what are common in banff, alberta and lake louise. Do you have any year round raptors in the area? Through migrants could be getting back to southern canada, still a little early but it does happen.......

**Huckin eh?** · 04-15-2009, 10:18 PM

Originally Posted by splat

Klingon Bird of Prey. Probably a small scout ship.
Wear a tinfoil hat when outdoors.
Liquid sky.

Liquid sky???????

Sounds like Liquid acid is FKN with your brain right now

**splat** · 04-15-2009, 10:27 PM

Originally Posted by Huckin eh?

Liquid sky???????

Sounds like Liquid acid is FKN with your brain right now

I take it you've never seen the movie Liquid Sky.
It's about a miniature spaceship that sucks peoples' life force out of them at the moment their aura is the most weakened - during orgasm.
Best line in the movie is when the chick whose house the spaceship landed in says " Everyone I fuck dies."

Trippin the white fantastic...

**rdennhs** · 04-15-2009, 10:29 PM

^^^^Splat, this may end up being my sig.

**mtsprings** · 04-15-2009, 10:42 PM

Originally Posted by rdennhs

Splat, this may end up being my sig.

Splat never says anything sig worthy

**ex-powderbroker** · 04-16-2009, 12:51 PM

Reminds me of this Tod Seelie photograph:

**OSECS** · 04-16-2009, 01:52 PM

Originally Posted by splat

I take it you've never seen the movie Liquid Sky.
It's about a miniature spaceship that sucks peoples' life force out of them at the moment their aura is the most weakened - during orgasm.
Best line in the movie is when the chick whose house the spaceship landed in says " Everyone I fuck dies."

Trippin the white fantastic...

Great movie. "They fucking love me in Germany"

**GeezerSteve** · 04-16-2009, 02:33 PM

Cool pics. My guess is golden eagle

**Ccard257** · 04-16-2009, 03:20 PM

Those are some awesome pics. Thanks for sharing!

**moose pit** · 04-16-2009, 04:23 PM

I've seen the same sort of prints from ptarmigan and grouse. Little fuckers bunk down in the snow during a storm and get covered by a few cm of fresh then when you ski by they take off. Funny when it happens to some one else.

**time2clmb** · 04-16-2009, 04:33 PM

That's fricken cool. I remember you telling me about these and I was trying to picture it. I thought the wing prints would be more smeared around than that. Neat.

**tensile** · 04-16-2009, 06:11 PM

Golden Eagle vs. Deer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAsXtDKdU0Q

Awesome birds

**flyandski365** · 04-16-2009, 06:24 PM

Thats a great clip. Juvinile goldie by the look of it. God I love raptors, pound for pound the most ferocious predators on the planet.

They occupy most of my spare time:

L7 · 04-16-2009, 08:08 PM

Originally Posted by BRUTAH

could be owls, either a great horned or a great gray owl (the only owls found in that area this time of year that are even close to the size of those imprints). I would still go with a raptor. that's solely based on how the feathers at the end of the wing are spread out, which is seen in raptors, whereas, owls wings are more rounded. Hard to pinpoint which raptor or even narrow it down without being able to tell the specific size of the imprints and what are common in banff, alberta and lake louise. Do you have any year round raptors in the area? Through migrants could be getting back to southern canada, still a little early but it does happen.......

I think those imprints are kind of rounded (especially #3) and stubby. On the raptor side Bald eagles have been back here (out of mountains) for better part of 2 months. 2 Bald eagles went by me on the river today and I'm pretty sure I heard my first Osprey today. Nesting pair of Bald Eagles always got back to Vermillion Lake in Banff about 1st week of March. I really think they tend to hunt down lower that time of year though.

Also might get Snowy Owls coming through this time of year although I've never seen one.

**flyandski365** · 04-16-2009, 09:37 PM

^Owls are raptors, just not falconiformes.

**Huckin eh?** · 04-16-2009, 10:33 PM

Whatever they are, they struck again between our visits to Hidden bowl.
We found another one today!

**MultiVerse** · 04-16-2009, 10:36 PM

Flaming Gorge Utah is a good place to watch eagles and ospreys catch fish, frogs, etc. The water is clear and it’s pretty amazing to be sharing the reservoir or the river when the big birds are hunting for dinner.