A long-time dear friend from high school days, Gene Oneal, sent this story to me. It came from a man who runs a 2000 acre corn farm near Barron, Wisconsin. He flew F-4E's and F-16's for the National Guard, and participated in the first Gulf War. Keep in mind the eagle is a Bible bird.
went out to plant corn for a bit to finish a field before tomorrow morning and witnessed The Great Battle.
A golden eagle with about a six-foot wingspan, flew in front of my tractor, being chased by three crows who were dive-bombing and pecking it. The eagle banked hard right in one evasive maneuver, then landed in the field about 100 feet from the tractor. He stood about three feet tall. The crows all landed too, and took up positions around the eagle at 120 degrees apart but kept their distance at about 20 feet from the eagle. The eagle would take a couple of steps toward one of the crows and they would hop backwards and forward to keep their distance...then, reinforcements showed up.
I happened to spot the eagle's mate hurdling down from the sky at what appeared Mach 1.5! Just before impact the eagle on the ground took flight and the three crows which were watching the grounded eagle, also took flight, thinking they were going to get in some more pecking on the big bird. The first crow targeted by the diving eagle never stood a chance. There was a mid-air explosion of black feathers and that crow was done. The diving eagle then banked hard left in what had to be a 9G climbing turn, using the energy it had accumulated in the dive, and hit crow number two less than two seconds later. Another crow dead. The grounded eagle, now airborne, had an altitude advantage on the remaining crow, which was streaking eastward in full burner, made a short dive then banked hard right when the escaping crow number three tried to evade the hit. It didn't work. Crow number three bit the dust at about twenty feet.
This aerial battle was better than any air show I've been to, including the warbirds show at Oshkosh. The two eagles ripped the crows apart and ate them on the ground. I passed within twenty feet of one of them. It stopped and looked at me and you could see in the look of that bird who's Boss Of The Sky.
"Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." (Isaiah 40:30-31)
Our national bird is not a crow. It is an eagle!
