I'll never forget about 5 years ago, I was outside trimming my holly bushes, an overhead shadow came down on me. I looked up and I swore it was a Condor. I immediately came online to check to see if a Condor had escaped from the Zoo, the Aviary, somewhere was there a Condor on the loose. Nope, just our local Bald Eagle, likely the female given the wingspan. I wasn't used to seeing them that low in the sky. The angle of the sun cast such a shadow that I seriously lost my ability to objectively discern what I was seeing. So, I absolutely understand what ya are saying Ben. Thank you for this video.
I am so glad to now be able to explain to my husband why spiders freak me out!! It's hard-wired in my brain! 🙂 Regarding the giant eagles, to the average person who doesn't commonly work with eagles or has never seen one close up, they _are_ enormous! Just seeing you standing with the golden eagle in your video makes me understand people's reactions. At the same time, we are often asked if our female Harris's hawk is an eagle! Their eyes pop out when we tell them an eagle would be 5-times as large/heavy. Love your videos, Ben!
Thanks, Ben. The brain is a funny thing sometimes. I kinda love the footage of Ben with tape measure, in the middle of the road, documenting how long the lines are.
Well I saw A GREAT HORNED OWL that was 2 metres tall, standing on the side of the road, at night, looking straight into the driver's seat emy van, so it was HUGE. Well, ok, it was probably 2 feet tall, and was kind of looking at me, and... But this perception issue really shows up in photos of lions, leopards, elephants.... People pop up an image that they took on their once-in-a-lifetime safari, a picture of a huge male lion, and the first thing that you ask is: "where is he exactly?" Of course, to the person on safari, it's an incredible experience, and the lion is, perceptually, a big-un! Just like that 100 kg. Golden Eagle 😀 BTW, it looks like you are recovering well, young man! Many's the raptor yet to be trained, exhibited, or rescued by you! (And, more entertaining and educational videos to come!)
It will still be coming. I need some good footage of them and last year after TONS of driving I only found one and it took off on me. I want to actually trap one and get some good photos. Ironically all my solid rough leg experience and hunting I only documented with slides. The rest of the time I never bothered to take pictures. So hopefully we will get a good migration this year and I can track some down and show how it is done
Had a cooper put his "parachute" in my face to change direction after harassing my redtail I was calling to glove 😂 I was so suprised, it felt like it was huge! 😂 All I remember is a flash of black barred feathers and my bird trying to land on my elevating glove (reflex) 😅 lol
Haven't heard the golden eagle one....but heard of plenty of stories of barn olws having at least a six foot wing span when flying across the road at night 😂
I’ve had the golden in the road eating road kill scenario happen before. They do look gigantic when up close and all of a sudden especially from the view point of a dirt bike. 😅
When I was six, my dad found a red tail caught in a steel jaw trap. He released it and as it flew up over the trees it seemed enormous! I have never seen so large a bird since.
This is great! Can you do a video with a bird on your arm? 🙏 (I mean, if you take requests.) I’m curious how you get food in between hunts, also does it smell? (I don’t have a bird, so I’m curious) 🦅
I know you asked Ben, but this is something I like telling people. 🙂 My Harris's hawk smells "earthy" and wonderful! She smells of nature, and although she grumbles, I've been known on occasion to briefly bury my nose in her feathers because she smells so good. 😊
In my early videos, I always used to hold a bird when I did the video. But it kind of threw me off because I had to keep looking down and making sure the bird wasn’t going to jump. Maybe I could start to do some videos like that again.
@@benwoodrufffalconry I wonder if when he retells that story how he got attacked he describes the goldie being between the size of a grizzly bear and a 18-wheeler lol
My experience with Golden Eagles is that Females average at 7 ft wingspans and a few even 7.5 ft. Ben I feel your wingspan stats are off. Weight can very a lot depending on how full or empty the crop is. Golden can eat so much food they can barely fly after they have engorged. So weight is a bit tricky. But on an empty stomach I feel Females can easily be 12 lbs. Like humans there can be fairly wide variations of size!!!
I was attacked by our resident female great horned owls a couple winters ago (I was shaking a rug and she mistook my pony tail for a squirrel's tail, I think). I happened to be bringing the rug up as she closed and luckily that was what she sank her talons into. I was SURROUNDED by wings, and then she was caught up under an awning for a few moments trying to get away. One of the largest wingspans in our neighborhood, but my entire world seemed CONSUMED by wings and feathers in that moment. She landed up in a tree and took a massive dump of disdain while her mate was hooting away somewhere above me. She's one of the two birds of prey to have touched my face with her wings (the other is the resident female Cooper's hawk), but I've also been in a foot of an osprey hovering in the wind (those talons!) and 3ft of a male bald eagle on a fish run dive and female turkey vulture investigating carion nextdoor. I'll never get over how big they SEEM up close. How common or uncommon IS it to be APPROACHED BY a bird of prey? Seems to happen to me almost yearly, most of my life. 🤣
I'll never forget about 5 years ago, I was outside trimming my holly bushes, an overhead shadow came down on me. I looked up and I swore it was a Condor. I immediately came online to check to see if a Condor had escaped from the Zoo, the Aviary, somewhere was there a Condor on the loose. Nope, just our local Bald Eagle, likely the female given the wingspan. I wasn't used to seeing them that low in the sky. The angle of the sun cast such a shadow that I seriously lost my ability to objectively discern what I was seeing. So, I absolutely understand what ya are saying Ben. Thank you for this video.
I am so glad to now be able to explain to my husband why spiders freak me out!! It's hard-wired in my brain! 🙂
Regarding the giant eagles, to the average person who doesn't commonly work with eagles or has never seen one close up, they _are_ enormous! Just seeing you standing with the golden eagle in your video makes me understand people's reactions. At the same time, we are often asked if our female Harris's hawk is an eagle! Their eyes pop out when we tell them an eagle would be 5-times as large/heavy. Love your videos, Ben!
Thanks, Ben. The brain is a funny thing sometimes. I kinda love the footage of Ben with tape measure, in the middle of the road, documenting how long the lines are.
Very true, 😉👍 txs, Ben. :-)
You should try to explain this to my aging left shoulder Ben lol
Nobody ever sees a 6" rat there always a foot long.
So very true!!!!!
but Ben, I saw an owl that was 5, no 6, no 7 FEET TALL!
Well I saw A GREAT HORNED OWL that was 2 metres tall, standing on the side of the road, at night, looking straight into the driver's seat emy van, so it was HUGE.
Well, ok, it was probably 2 feet tall, and was kind of looking at me, and...
But this perception issue really shows up in photos of lions, leopards, elephants.... People pop up an image that they took on their once-in-a-lifetime safari, a picture of a huge male lion, and the first thing that you ask is: "where is he exactly?"
Of course, to the person on safari, it's an incredible experience, and the lion is, perceptually, a big-un! Just like that 100 kg. Golden Eagle 😀
BTW, it looks like you are recovering well, young man!
Many's the raptor yet to be trained, exhibited, or rescued by you!
(And, more entertaining and educational videos to come!)
Thanks Ben! You were going to make a video about using RoughLegged hawks in falconry. Did I miss that?
It will still be coming. I need some good footage of them and last year after TONS of driving I only found one and it took off on me. I want to actually trap one and get some good photos. Ironically all my solid rough leg experience and hunting I only documented with slides. The rest of the time I never bothered to take pictures. So hopefully we will get a good migration this year and I can track some down and show how it is done
@@benwoodrufffalconry I have many picrures I’ve taken over several winter seasons. Let me know if you want me to send some.
Had a cooper put his "parachute" in my face to change direction after harassing my redtail I was calling to glove 😂 I was so suprised, it felt like it was huge! 😂 All I remember is a flash of black barred feathers and my bird trying to land on my elevating glove (reflex) 😅 lol
Great info!
Haven't heard the golden eagle one....but heard of plenty of stories of barn olws having at least a six foot wing span when flying across the road at night 😂
👍🏻
I’ve had the golden in the road eating road kill scenario happen before. They do look gigantic when up close and all of a sudden especially from the view point of a dirt bike. 😅
When I was six, my dad found a red tail caught in a steel jaw trap. He released it and as it flew up over the trees it seemed enormous! I have never seen so large a bird since.
This is great! Can you do a video with a bird on your arm? 🙏 (I mean, if you take requests.) I’m curious how you get food in between hunts, also does it smell? (I don’t have a bird, so I’m curious) 🦅
I know you asked Ben, but this is something I like telling people. 🙂 My Harris's hawk smells "earthy" and wonderful! She smells of nature, and although she grumbles, I've been known on occasion to briefly bury my nose in her feathers because she smells so good. 😊
In my early videos, I always used to hold a bird when I did the video. But it kind of threw me off because I had to keep looking down and making sure the bird wasn’t going to jump. Maybe I could start to do some videos like that again.
@@benwoodrufffalconry Maybe for videos that you know are going to be short..
@@harrishawklerinDE That’s cool, thank you!
ben turning out the S-tier content. I'd love to know the story behind the thumbnail!
Thumbnail was I believe from a National Geographic photo shoot where the photographer got attacked by an imprint eagle
@@benwoodrufffalconry I wonder if when he retells that story how he got attacked he describes the goldie being between the size of a grizzly bear and a 18-wheeler lol
My experience with Golden Eagles is that Females average at 7 ft wingspans and a few even 7.5 ft. Ben I feel your wingspan stats are off. Weight can very a lot depending on how full or empty the crop is. Golden can eat so much food they can barely fly after they have engorged. So weight is a bit tricky. But on an empty stomach I feel Females can easily be 12 lbs. Like humans there can be fairly wide variations of size!!!
I was attacked by our resident female great horned owls a couple winters ago (I was shaking a rug and she mistook my pony tail for a squirrel's tail, I think). I happened to be bringing the rug up as she closed and luckily that was what she sank her talons into. I was SURROUNDED by wings, and then she was caught up under an awning for a few moments trying to get away.
One of the largest wingspans in our neighborhood, but my entire world seemed CONSUMED by wings and feathers in that moment. She landed up in a tree and took a massive dump of disdain while her mate was hooting away somewhere above me.
She's one of the two birds of prey to have touched my face with her wings (the other is the resident female Cooper's hawk), but I've also been in a foot of an osprey hovering in the wind (those talons!) and 3ft of a male bald eagle on a fish run dive and female turkey vulture investigating carion nextdoor.
I'll never get over how big they SEEM up close.
How common or uncommon IS it to be APPROACHED BY a bird of prey? Seems to happen to me almost yearly, most of my life. 🤣
3rd gen Tacoma!