USMB Coffee Shop IV

[WelfareQueen]

We're going to see the movie Dunkirk this weekend. It has gotten good reviews. I'll let you folks know what we think.

 

[Foxfyre]

We're going to see the movie Dunkirk this weekend. It has gotten good reviews. I'll let you folks know what we think.

Please do. Hombre especially likes historically based war movies and I enjoy them too.

 

[gallantwarrior]

The wife saw the hawk again this morning chasing a grey dove.

Those are mourning doves, very prolific year round here and in the lower elevations of the Sandia and Manazano mountains. If you have a lot of trees and shrubbery on your property they probably have a nest or two there.

It was interesting that the scrub jays on the mountain harrassed and bullied all the smaller birds up there, but they couldn't bully the mourning doves who got along with everything but them. If the jays got too obnoxious, the doves would run them off allowing the little birds to go to the feeders unmolested.

But it was interesting. Everybody--jays, sparrows, nutcatches, grosbeaks, finches, doves, etc. would go flat to the ground or flatten out on the deck when the shadow of the golden eagles passed over them.

The mourning doves coo gently here too. Mom currently has a nesting pair at the Big House. She has named them George and Gracie.

I've told this story before, but it bears repeating.

When I lived on the sunny coast of west Florida, Sarasota to be specific, I had a project mapping a garbage dump. It was all bright lights and glamor at that point in my career. The dump was a cone shaped mound that rose more than 100 feet from the billiard table like terrain. The top of the mound was perpetually covered with scavenging sea gulls. They picked through the disposable diapers and frozen dinner containers and placed a patina of gull guano all over the dump.

There was a pair of Bald Eagles who built an aerie in the tall yellow leaf pines surrounding the site. We found the nest by looking at the ground around the base of the trees. Once we found a mess of fish bones, gull bones, eagle down and poop, we knew which tree contained their aerie. We diligently placed caution tape around a fifty foot diameter ring around the tree to help preserve the nest.

Every day, three of four times a day, one of the eagles would take Wing and swoop low across the convention of gulls. The sea gulls weren't dummies. They sensed the flight of the eagles and would split as soon as possible. It looked to me like someone was opening a zipper on a gull sweater. They flew off with due haste as they knew any one of them might just become lunch.

I have an icon to a southwest Florida bald eagle cam on my desktop. It is idle right now because the last eaglet left the premises to resettle probably up north somewhere on May 2.

Harriet and M-1, mom and dad, are still in the area but enjoying the summer for now. They will shore up the huge nest, 90 feet above the ground, this fall and the new eaglet or eaglets will hatch probably in November or December. M-1 is Harriet's second mate. Her first husband, Ozzie, died two or three years ago. But they are a great pair and good parents taking turns incubating the eggs and hunting--the hunter brings food back to whoever is on the nest. And once the eaglets hatch, they have to work from dawn to dusk to keep the hungry little ones fed along with themselves. Bald eagles mate for life and are monogamous unless no offspring result from the union in which case they go their separate ways and seek out new mates.

If ya'll will remind me, I'll post the link to the eagle cam this fall if anybody is interested in watching.

What comes around, goes around. While anecdotal here, we recognize that eagles prey on cats, small dogs, and even baby goats.
eagle feeds eaglets a cat - - Yahoo Video Search Results

Yikes!

While I've seen a hawk's shadow send squirrels and chipmunks scurrying, I never worried about my fourteen pound miniature poodle. But we have Eagles here too nesting out around the state park.

Daisy and I will be sticking close to home.

Hmmm, I dunno, 14 lbs is pretty heavy. Goat kids are usually around 6 lbs when born. But when you see an eagle dive and grab a 14-10 lb salmon...well, I guess I'd be cautious if there are eagles about.
When I was deer hunting back East from stands, the squirrels would raise holy hell whenever they spotted me, but like you've noted, as soon as a hawk's shadow passed over, the hairy rats ran for cover and gave some peace.

 

[Hossfly]

Those are mourning doves, very prolific year round here and in the lower elevations of the Sandia and Manazano mountains. If you have a lot of trees and shrubbery on your property they probably have a nest or two there.

It was interesting that the scrub jays on the mountain harrassed and bullied all the smaller birds up there, but they couldn't bully the mourning doves who got along with everything but them. If the jays got too obnoxious, the doves would run them off allowing the little birds to go to the feeders unmolested.

But it was interesting. Everybody--jays, sparrows, nutcatches, grosbeaks, finches, doves, etc. would go flat to the ground or flatten out on the deck when the shadow of the golden eagles passed over them.

The mourning doves coo gently here too. Mom currently has a nesting pair at the Big House. She has named them George and Gracie.

I've told this story before, but it bears repeating.

When I lived on the sunny coast of west Florida, Sarasota to be specific, I had a project mapping a garbage dump. It was all bright lights and glamor at that point in my career. The dump was a cone shaped mound that rose more than 100 feet from the billiard table like terrain. The top of the mound was perpetually covered with scavenging sea gulls. They picked through the disposable diapers and frozen dinner containers and placed a patina of gull guano all over the dump.

There was a pair of Bald Eagles who built an aerie in the tall yellow leaf pines surrounding the site. We found the nest by looking at the ground around the base of the trees. Once we found a mess of fish bones, gull bones, eagle down and poop, we knew which tree contained their aerie. We diligently placed caution tape around a fifty foot diameter ring around the tree to help preserve the nest.

Every day, three of four times a day, one of the eagles would take Wing and swoop low across the convention of gulls. The sea gulls weren't dummies. They sensed the flight of the eagles and would split as soon as possible. It looked to me like someone was opening a zipper on a gull sweater. They flew off with due haste as they knew any one of them might just become lunch.

I have an icon to a southwest Florida bald eagle cam on my desktop. It is idle right now because the last eaglet left the premises to resettle probably up north somewhere on May 2.

Harriet and M-1, mom and dad, are still in the area but enjoying the summer for now. They will shore up the huge nest, 90 feet above the ground, this fall and the new eaglet or eaglets will hatch probably in November or December. M-1 is Harriet's second mate. Her first husband, Ozzie, died two or three years ago. But they are a great pair and good parents taking turns incubating the eggs and hunting--the hunter brings food back to whoever is on the nest. And once the eaglets hatch, they have to work from dawn to dusk to keep the hungry little ones fed along with themselves. Bald eagles mate for life and are monogamous unless no offspring result from the union in which case they go their separate ways and seek out new mates.

If ya'll will remind me, I'll post the link to the eagle cam this fall if anybody is interested in watching.

What comes around, goes around. While anecdotal here, we recognize that eagles prey on cats, small dogs, and even baby goats.
eagle feeds eaglets a cat - - Yahoo Video Search Results

Yikes!

While I've seen a hawk's shadow send squirrels and chipmunks scurrying, I never worried about my fourteen pound miniature poodle. But we have Eagles here too nesting out around the state park.

Daisy and I will be sticking close to home.

Hmmm, I dunno, 14 lbs is pretty heavy. Goat kids are usually around 6 lbs when born. But when you see an eagle dive and grab a 14-10 lb salmon...well, I guess I'd be cautious if there are eagles about.
When I was deer hunting back East from stands, the squirrels would raise holy hell whenever they spotted me, but like you've noted, as soon as a hawk's shadow passed over, the hairy rats ran for cover and gave some peace.

Pretty big fish here.

​

 

[Hossfly]

Just a little too big to carry.

​

 

[Hossfly]

Little girl catches a weeks worth of groceries.

​

 

[gallantwarrior]

The mourning doves coo gently here too. Mom currently has a nesting pair at the Big House. She has named them George and Gracie.

I've told this story before, but it bears repeating.

When I lived on the sunny coast of west Florida, Sarasota to be specific, I had a project mapping a garbage dump. It was all bright lights and glamor at that point in my career. The dump was a cone shaped mound that rose more than 100 feet from the billiard table like terrain. The top of the mound was perpetually covered with scavenging sea gulls. They picked through the disposable diapers and frozen dinner containers and placed a patina of gull guano all over the dump.

There was a pair of Bald Eagles who built an aerie in the tall yellow leaf pines surrounding the site. We found the nest by looking at the ground around the base of the trees. Once we found a mess of fish bones, gull bones, eagle down and poop, we knew which tree contained their aerie. We diligently placed caution tape around a fifty foot diameter ring around the tree to help preserve the nest.

Every day, three of four times a day, one of the eagles would take Wing and swoop low across the convention of gulls. The sea gulls weren't dummies. They sensed the flight of the eagles and would split as soon as possible. It looked to me like someone was opening a zipper on a gull sweater. They flew off with due haste as they knew any one of them might just become lunch.

I have an icon to a southwest Florida bald eagle cam on my desktop. It is idle right now because the last eaglet left the premises to resettle probably up north somewhere on May 2.

Harriet and M-1, mom and dad, are still in the area but enjoying the summer for now. They will shore up the huge nest, 90 feet above the ground, this fall and the new eaglet or eaglets will hatch probably in November or December. M-1 is Harriet's second mate. Her first husband, Ozzie, died two or three years ago. But they are a great pair and good parents taking turns incubating the eggs and hunting--the hunter brings food back to whoever is on the nest. And once the eaglets hatch, they have to work from dawn to dusk to keep the hungry little ones fed along with themselves. Bald eagles mate for life and are monogamous unless no offspring result from the union in which case they go their separate ways and seek out new mates.

If ya'll will remind me, I'll post the link to the eagle cam this fall if anybody is interested in watching.

What comes around, goes around. While anecdotal here, we recognize that eagles prey on cats, small dogs, and even baby goats.
eagle feeds eaglets a cat - - Yahoo Video Search Results

Yikes!

While I've seen a hawk's shadow send squirrels and chipmunks scurrying, I never worried about my fourteen pound miniature poodle. But we have Eagles here too nesting out around the state park.

Daisy and I will be sticking close to home.

Hmmm, I dunno, 14 lbs is pretty heavy. Goat kids are usually around 6 lbs when born. But when you see an eagle dive and grab a 14-10 lb salmon...well, I guess I'd be cautious if there are eagles about.
When I was deer hunting back East from stands, the squirrels would raise holy hell whenever they spotted me, but like you've noted, as soon as a hawk's shadow passed over, the hairy rats ran for cover and gave some peace.

Pretty big fish here.

​

Yup! Typical domestic felines stand no chance, small froo-froo dogs, likewise. That's got to be at least 14 lbs of salmon there, so a fluffy little froo-froo doesn't stand a chance.

 

[gallantwarrior]

Just a little too big to carry.

​

Not if the eagle can kill it.

Watch at about the five-minute mark when an eagle captures and carries a good-sized kid to its nest.

 

[Foxfyre]

The mourning doves coo gently here too. Mom currently has a nesting pair at the Big House. She has named them George and Gracie.

I've told this story before, but it bears repeating.

When I lived on the sunny coast of west Florida, Sarasota to be specific, I had a project mapping a garbage dump. It was all bright lights and glamor at that point in my career. The dump was a cone shaped mound that rose more than 100 feet from the billiard table like terrain. The top of the mound was perpetually covered with scavenging sea gulls. They picked through the disposable diapers and frozen dinner containers and placed a patina of gull guano all over the dump.

There was a pair of Bald Eagles who built an aerie in the tall yellow leaf pines surrounding the site. We found the nest by looking at the ground around the base of the trees. Once we found a mess of fish bones, gull bones, eagle down and poop, we knew which tree contained their aerie. We diligently placed caution tape around a fifty foot diameter ring around the tree to help preserve the nest.

Every day, three of four times a day, one of the eagles would take Wing and swoop low across the convention of gulls. The sea gulls weren't dummies. They sensed the flight of the eagles and would split as soon as possible. It looked to me like someone was opening a zipper on a gull sweater. They flew off with due haste as they knew any one of them might just become lunch.

I have an icon to a southwest Florida bald eagle cam on my desktop. It is idle right now because the last eaglet left the premises to resettle probably up north somewhere on May 2.

Harriet and M-1, mom and dad, are still in the area but enjoying the summer for now. They will shore up the huge nest, 90 feet above the ground, this fall and the new eaglet or eaglets will hatch probably in November or December. M-1 is Harriet's second mate. Her first husband, Ozzie, died two or three years ago. But they are a great pair and good parents taking turns incubating the eggs and hunting--the hunter brings food back to whoever is on the nest. And once the eaglets hatch, they have to work from dawn to dusk to keep the hungry little ones fed along with themselves. Bald eagles mate for life and are monogamous unless no offspring result from the union in which case they go their separate ways and seek out new mates.

If ya'll will remind me, I'll post the link to the eagle cam this fall if anybody is interested in watching.

What comes around, goes around. While anecdotal here, we recognize that eagles prey on cats, small dogs, and even baby goats.
eagle feeds eaglets a cat - - Yahoo Video Search Results

Yikes!

While I've seen a hawk's shadow send squirrels and chipmunks scurrying, I never worried about my fourteen pound miniature poodle. But we have Eagles here too nesting out around the state park.

Daisy and I will be sticking close to home.

Hmmm, I dunno, 14 lbs is pretty heavy. Goat kids are usually around 6 lbs when born. But when you see an eagle dive and grab a 14-10 lb salmon...well, I guess I'd be cautious if there are eagles about.
When I was deer hunting back East from stands, the squirrels would raise holy hell whenever they spotted me, but like you've noted, as soon as a hawk's shadow passed over, the hairy rats ran for cover and gave some peace.

Pretty big fish here.

​

But I bet he/she didn't fly with it. . .I watched some catch the big salmon in Alaska but they swam or dragged it through the water to shore. Eagles are surprisingly good swimmers. But again I am no expert on bald eagles. I just know that a fully grown cat or a dog the size of a big cat or larger doesn't have much, if anything, to fear from the golden eagles or red tails. Kittens or other small prey, yes.
Lifting Capacity of Eagles - Hancock Wildlife Foundation

A great horned owl now. . .that I would watch but it is highly unlikely they would attack if you're near your pet. . .and they hunt at dusk/night. They are big birds - 3 to 4 pounds - and it is said they can lift two to three times their weight. I have not witnessed that though.

 

[saveliberty]

Yup! Typical domestic felines stand no chance, small froo-froo dogs, likewise. That's got to be at least 14 lbs of salmon there, so a fluffy little froo-froo doesn't stand a chance.

I have owned cats that took down Blue Jays like they were nothing.

 

[ricechickie]

My visit with my parents is winding down. They are leaving tomorrow morning, and I am sort of relieved. It will take time to recover and feel like I can be at home in my own house again. I did try to be a gracious host and not boring, but sometimes I am boring. I had chores, and that kept my dad kind of busy (he offered to help paint, I never asked), and that helped.

One more week off and I will be back to work half days for two weeks. Summer camp!

 

[saveliberty]

My visit with my parents is winding down. They are leaving tomorrow morning, and I am sort of relieved. It will take time to recover and feel like I can be at home in my own house again. I did try to be a gracious host and not boring, but sometimes I am boring. I had chores, and that kept my dad kind of busy (he offered to help paint, I never asked), and that helped.

One more week off and I will be back to work half days for two weeks. Summer camp!

Sounds like a lot of hot dogs and baked beans with that schedule.

 

[ricechickie]

I also have celebrated my kids' birthdays this week. Twenty and twenty-one years old. I hugged my daughter today and came away teary-eyed. I was wishing her dad was still here to see them. I think of him everyday. She said, "It's not like it's the first birthday without him." I said I know, it's stupid and I just get a little teary sometimes......like now.

 

[gallantwarrior]

I have an icon to a southwest Florida bald eagle cam on my desktop. It is idle right now because the last eaglet left the premises to resettle probably up north somewhere on May 2.

Harriet and M-1, mom and dad, are still in the area but enjoying the summer for now. They will shore up the huge nest, 90 feet above the ground, this fall and the new eaglet or eaglets will hatch probably in November or December. M-1 is Harriet's second mate. Her first husband, Ozzie, died two or three years ago. But they are a great pair and good parents taking turns incubating the eggs and hunting--the hunter brings food back to whoever is on the nest. And once the eaglets hatch, they have to work from dawn to dusk to keep the hungry little ones fed along with themselves. Bald eagles mate for life and are monogamous unless no offspring result from the union in which case they go their separate ways and seek out new mates.

If ya'll will remind me, I'll post the link to the eagle cam this fall if anybody is interested in watching.

What comes around, goes around. While anecdotal here, we recognize that eagles prey on cats, small dogs, and even baby goats.
eagle feeds eaglets a cat - - Yahoo Video Search Results

Yikes!

While I've seen a hawk's shadow send squirrels and chipmunks scurrying, I never worried about my fourteen pound miniature poodle. But we have Eagles here too nesting out around the state park.

Daisy and I will be sticking close to home.

Hmmm, I dunno, 14 lbs is pretty heavy. Goat kids are usually around 6 lbs when born. But when you see an eagle dive and grab a 14-10 lb salmon...well, I guess I'd be cautious if there are eagles about.
When I was deer hunting back East from stands, the squirrels would raise holy hell whenever they spotted me, but like you've noted, as soon as a hawk's shadow passed over, the hairy rats ran for cover and gave some peace.

Pretty big fish here.

​

But I bet he/she didn't fly with it. . .I watched some catch the big salmon in Alaska but they swam or dragged it through the water to shore. Eagles are surprisingly good swimmers. But again I am no expert on bald eagles. I just know that a fully grown cat or a dog the size of a big cat or larger doesn't have much, if anything, to fear from the golden eagles or red tails. Kittens or other small prey, yes.
Lifting Capacity of Eagles - Hancock Wildlife Foundation

A great horned owl now. . .that I would watch but it is highly unlikely they would attack if you're near your pet. . .and they hunt at dusk/night. They are big birds - 3 to 4 pounds - and it is said they can lift two to three times their weight. I have not witnessed that though.

Owls are prone to attacking people, too.
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/...=529f3ecabd2403b272cc963d383ff973&action=view
Eagles RULE!
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/...=96043681ba71134d87885d37d8478f40&action=view

 

[Nosmo King]

What comes around, goes around. While anecdotal here, we recognize that eagles prey on cats, small dogs, and even baby goats.
eagle feeds eaglets a cat - - Yahoo Video Search Results

Yikes!

While I've seen a hawk's shadow send squirrels and chipmunks scurrying, I never worried about my fourteen pound miniature poodle. But we have Eagles here too nesting out around the state park.

Daisy and I will be sticking close to home.

Hmmm, I dunno, 14 lbs is pretty heavy. Goat kids are usually around 6 lbs when born. But when you see an eagle dive and grab a 14-10 lb salmon...well, I guess I'd be cautious if there are eagles about.
When I was deer hunting back East from stands, the squirrels would raise holy hell whenever they spotted me, but like you've noted, as soon as a hawk's shadow passed over, the hairy rats ran for cover and gave some peace.

Pretty big fish here.

​

But I bet he/she didn't fly with it. . .I watched some catch the big salmon in Alaska but they swam or dragged it through the water to shore. Eagles are surprisingly good swimmers. But again I am no expert on bald eagles. I just know that a fully grown cat or a dog the size of a big cat or larger doesn't have much, if anything, to fear from the golden eagles or red tails. Kittens or other small prey, yes.
Lifting Capacity of Eagles - Hancock Wildlife Foundation

A great horned owl now. . .that I would watch but it is highly unlikely they would attack if you're near your pet. . .and they hunt at dusk/night. They are big birds - 3 to 4 pounds - and it is said they can lift two to three times their weight. I have not witnessed that though.

Owls are prone to attacking people, too.
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/...=529f3ecabd2403b272cc963d383ff973&action=view
Eagles RULE!
owls attack people - - Yahoo Video Search Results

Boy! You're just full of good news tonight! Owls attacking people put me into a full on Tippi Hendron freak Out!

 

[gallantwarrior]

My visit with my parents is winding down. They are leaving tomorrow morning, and I am sort of relieved. It will take time to recover and feel like I can be at home in my own house again. I did try to be a gracious host and not boring, but sometimes I am boring. I had chores, and that kept my dad kind of busy (he offered to help paint, I never asked), and that helped.

One more week off and I will be back to work half days for two weeks. Summer camp!

I start a three-week vacation next week. Originally, my granddaughters were supposed to be here, but they won't come now until the last week. I do have plenty to do, including painting and a lot of trim work. We have to replace the head gasket on Hoezilla (the JD 410 backhoe) before I can get much digging done. I'd prefer to have "fun" time with the girls, but there is so much to do before the snow flies...

 

[gallantwarrior]

Yikes!

While I've seen a hawk's shadow send squirrels and chipmunks scurrying, I never worried about my fourteen pound miniature poodle. But we have Eagles here too nesting out around the state park.

Daisy and I will be sticking close to home.

Hmmm, I dunno, 14 lbs is pretty heavy. Goat kids are usually around 6 lbs when born. But when you see an eagle dive and grab a 14-10 lb salmon...well, I guess I'd be cautious if there are eagles about.
When I was deer hunting back East from stands, the squirrels would raise holy hell whenever they spotted me, but like you've noted, as soon as a hawk's shadow passed over, the hairy rats ran for cover and gave some peace.

Pretty big fish here.

​

But I bet he/she didn't fly with it. . .I watched some catch the big salmon in Alaska but they swam or dragged it through the water to shore. Eagles are surprisingly good swimmers. But again I am no expert on bald eagles. I just know that a fully grown cat or a dog the size of a big cat or larger doesn't have much, if anything, to fear from the golden eagles or red tails. Kittens or other small prey, yes.
Lifting Capacity of Eagles - Hancock Wildlife Foundation

A great horned owl now. . .that I would watch but it is highly unlikely they would attack if you're near your pet. . .and they hunt at dusk/night. They are big birds - 3 to 4 pounds - and it is said they can lift two to three times their weight. I have not witnessed that though.

Owls are prone to attacking people, too.
owls attack humans - - Yahoo Video Search Results
Eagles RULE!
owls attack people - - Yahoo Video Search Results

Boy! You're just full of good news tonight! Owls attacking people put me into a full on Tippi Hendron freak Out!

We had an owl that attacked many hikers on a local trail. Not sure whether it had a nest or a hard-on for hikers. Mostly, people lost their hats, but a few lost hair. I had an owl scope me out one time when I was bow hunting moose. It was dusk and I'm sure the bird was just trying to figure out whether I was edible. Owls are quiet!

 

[Nosmo King]

Hmmm, I dunno, 14 lbs is pretty heavy. Goat kids are usually around 6 lbs when born. But when you see an eagle dive and grab a 14-10 lb salmon...well, I guess I'd be cautious if there are eagles about.
When I was deer hunting back East from stands, the squirrels would raise holy hell whenever they spotted me, but like you've noted, as soon as a hawk's shadow passed over, the hairy rats ran for cover and gave some peace.

Pretty big fish here.

​

But I bet he/she didn't fly with it. . .I watched some catch the big salmon in Alaska but they swam or dragged it through the water to shore. Eagles are surprisingly good swimmers. But again I am no expert on bald eagles. I just know that a fully grown cat or a dog the size of a big cat or larger doesn't have much, if anything, to fear from the golden eagles or red tails. Kittens or other small prey, yes.
Lifting Capacity of Eagles - Hancock Wildlife Foundation

A great horned owl now. . .that I would watch but it is highly unlikely they would attack if you're near your pet. . .and they hunt at dusk/night. They are big birds - 3 to 4 pounds - and it is said they can lift two to three times their weight. I have not witnessed that though.

Owls are prone to attacking people, too.
owls attack humans - - Yahoo Video Search Results
Eagles RULE!
owls attack people - - Yahoo Video Search Results

Boy! You're just full of good news tonight! Owls attacking people put me into a full on Tippi Hendron freak Out!

We had an owl that attacked many hikers on a local trail. Not sure whether it had a nest or a hard-on for hikers. Mostly, people lost their hats, but a few lost hair. I had an owl scope me out one time when I was bow hunting moose. It was dusk and I'm sure the bird was just trying to figure out whether I was edible. Owls are quiet!

Back in the summer of 1963 Mom took me to the American Theater down besides Islay's on Sixth Street. There was a movie playing Mom thought may be educational. A film like the popular Cinerama presentations. An Audubon film. Why, it's title is The Birds! What could go wrong?

Yeah. It was Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece.

The film put the hook into a six and a half year old. I would have insisted on 'and a half'.

I had nightmares of running from the playground on St. John Street with crows tearing my flesh, sparrows cascading by the hundreds down the chimney and out into the living room. A few months later, I saw another movie with Suzanne Pleshette. I was fobsmaxked! "I saw you dead!" I cried in my mind.

That, and subsequent grizzy encounters with birds has put me off poultry for fifty five years.

 

[Dajjal]

 

[peach174]

Hmmm, I dunno, 14 lbs is pretty heavy. Goat kids are usually around 6 lbs when born. But when you see an eagle dive and grab a 14-10 lb salmon...well, I guess I'd be cautious if there are eagles about.
When I was deer hunting back East from stands, the squirrels would raise holy hell whenever they spotted me, but like you've noted, as soon as a hawk's shadow passed over, the hairy rats ran for cover and gave some peace.

Pretty big fish here.

​

But I bet he/she didn't fly with it. . .I watched some catch the big salmon in Alaska but they swam or dragged it through the water to shore. Eagles are surprisingly good swimmers. But again I am no expert on bald eagles. I just know that a fully grown cat or a dog the size of a big cat or larger doesn't have much, if anything, to fear from the golden eagles or red tails. Kittens or other small prey, yes.
Lifting Capacity of Eagles - Hancock Wildlife Foundation

A great horned owl now. . .that I would watch but it is highly unlikely they would attack if you're near your pet. . .and they hunt at dusk/night. They are big birds - 3 to 4 pounds - and it is said they can lift two to three times their weight. I have not witnessed that though.

Owls are prone to attacking people, too.
owls attack humans - - Yahoo Video Search Results
Eagles RULE!
owls attack people - - Yahoo Video Search Results

Boy! You're just full of good news tonight! Owls attacking people put me into a full on Tippi Hendron freak Out!

We had an owl that attacked many hikers on a local trail. Not sure whether it had a nest or a hard-on for hikers. Mostly, people lost their hats, but a few lost hair. I had an owl scope me out one time when I was bow hunting moose. It was dusk and I'm sure the bird was just trying to figure out whether I was edible. Owls are quiet!

Yes owls are very quiet , then you hear the whoosh of the wings too late, got hair.