Althouse: Live-streaming webcam of bald eagles' nest shows the birds arriving with dinner consisting of a cat.

April 29, 2016

Live-streaming webcam of bald eagles' nest shows the birds arriving with dinner consisting of a cat.

That upset some people.

But:

1. You're watching eagles do what eagles have evolved to do, just normal life.

2. Look to your own nature: Why are you peeping on the private life of animals? If anything's disgusting, you're disgusting for peeping. Turn your squeamish outcry against yourself.

3. It's poetic justice. Cats kill birds. Those who let their pussies run wild should remember that the nonnative species they set loose is ravaging the birds who are trying to get along in what is the ecosystem they earned through long years of evolution. Your feline pets are killing 3.7 billion birds annually. The turnabout seen in the webcam is small recompense for the damage done.

57 comments:

rehajm said...: The Pittsburgh cat was probably already dead when it was brought to the nest, the Audubon Society said

Eagles are the scummiest of scavengers, but unless there's evidence...There's ample evidence the Audubon Society has no problem with talking out of it's collective ass.; 4/29/16, 7:48 AM
rehajm said...: It's what he would've wanted...; 4/29/16, 7:48 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Cats: several hundred million
Birds: 1; 4/29/16, 7:52 AM
campy said...: "Your feline pets are killing 3.7 billion birds annually."

As if I needed another reason to love cats!

Faster! Faster!; 4/29/16, 7:59 AM
rehajm said...: Those who let their pussies run wild should remember that the nonnative species they set loose is ravaging the birds who are trying to get along in what is the ecosystem they earned through long years of evolution.

Cats earned their current place in the ecosystem by figuring out you can skip those long years of evolution if you hitch your wagon to the top of the food chain.

You go kitty!; 4/29/16, 8:02 AM
Anonymous said...: Eagle 1
Salmon 0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hecXupPpE9o; 4/29/16, 8:08 AM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: Frickin' YouTube lied to me again?

Eagle Visits Cats

Cat, Eagle, & Fox on Porch

Cats Hanging Out With Eagles; 4/29/16, 8:09 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "'The Pittsburgh cat was probably already dead when it was brought to the nest, the Audubon Society said' Eagles are the scummiest of scavengers, but unless there's evidence...There's ample evidence the Audubon Society has no problem with talking out of it's collective ass."

The AS is doing PR for birds. But of the subject of the scavenger ways of the eagle — which I see no reason to disrespect — Benjamin Franklin had his opinion::

"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.

"With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country . . .

"I am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on."; 4/29/16, 8:10 AM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: From the University of Georgia (go Dawgs):

Kittycam shows domestic cats hunting birds, wildlife; 4/29/16, 8:11 AM
Jaq said...: In Alaska they call them dumpster chickens.; 4/29/16, 8:22 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: Baby eagles have to eat too.; 4/29/16, 8:24 AM
Fabi said...: That upset some cat people.

FIFY; 4/29/16, 8:24 AM
Jaq said...: I have a pic of a crow and an eagle fighting over a fish. If I had that lens garage has, it would probably be worth posting.; 4/29/16, 8:25 AM
Big Mike said...: It's simple: the eagle was here in North America before the housecats were.; 4/29/16, 8:34 AM
Fernandinande said...: Cat is wonderful!

Cat is my favorite.; 4/29/16, 8:34 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Those who let their pussies run wild...

Slut-shaming again, I see...; 4/29/16, 8:35 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: We had an owl on a branch above our backyard this morning. Our cats are indoor cats.; 4/29/16, 8:36 AM
Sebastian said...: "The turnabout seen in the webcam is small recompense for the damage done." The whole anthropomorphic kerfuffle, on all sides, shows that science, certainly science education, is pointless. People gonna think what they wanna think, science be damned.; 4/29/16, 8:40 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: Evolution and "poetic justice" do not sit side-by-side on the same bus seat.; 4/29/16, 8:50 AM
SeanF said...: campy: "Your feline pets are killing 3.7 billion birds annually."

As if I needed another reason to love cats!

Faster! Faster!

I'm disappointed, Campy. The proper final line to your post would be, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!; 4/29/16, 8:56 AM
Paul said...: I notice you claim as fact that cats kill 3.7 B birds per year in the US even though that study claims 3.7B is the high estimate. I suspect an anti-cat bias here. I'm also suspicious of the validity of the study. I do know for sure that there is no paucity of bird life anywhere I go. I've had cats all my life. I can count the number of bird kills on one hand.

i; 4/29/16, 8:59 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: People want to think that nature is a version of a Disney film. Like Bambi or something with mommies, daddies little baby deer all making a sweet family. Awwwww. They get all astounded when reality hits them in the face. Animals kill and eat. Cats kill birds (among other things) birds kill cats. Cats...really big ones like mountain lions kill people. The Circle of Life....let's hum the tune.

We have cats. One indoor all the time. She is a prisoner. The other indoor at night (so the foxes,cougars,coyotes don't eat him) and outdoors all day. The inside cat is a little old lady. When she was young and outside she almost got nabbed by a Great Horned Owl. They sit in the huge juniper tree near our bedroom and hoo hoo hooooo....loudly. The cat had puncture wounds on her back and was one lucky cat that evening. Literally escaped from the claws of death.

The other outside cat is a big boy weighing in at least 19 pounds.. He was a stray we adopted. We love him killing the ground squirrels, gophers, snakes. Sure he kills some birds too. We have at least a hundred quail on our property that we feed daily. As well as the freeloading Eurasian Doves, black birds, white capped sparrows and a lot of other species. So...if he kills a few birds, big deal. There are more. Actually, the quail and the cat have a truce. They fly into the trees and clack cluck at him and he just shrugs his shoulders as he walks by, knowing it is a waste of his time.

Nature, just like the weather is going to do what it is going to do no matter what we think. We just need to realize that we are not that important in the big scheme of things and get over ourselves.; 4/29/16, 9:00 AM
Pettifogger said...: Predator. Prey. Food chain. Cats mostly function as predators but not exclusively so. The same applies to us, though we've more successfully insulated ourselves from all but (paradoxically) the tiniest predators, bacteria.; 4/29/16, 9:01 AM
damikesc said...: How many of these people believe in the concept of "animal rights"?

This is what animals do. If you're shocked, then you've lived an incredibly protected life where you never had to see wildlife outside of a zoo.; 4/29/16, 9:06 AM
Rick said...: Benjamin Franklin had his opinion::

"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.

I have to disagree with Ben and note the appropriateness given how our country evolved. We couldn't have picked a better symbol of our government.; 4/29/16, 9:07 AM
Mrs Whatsit said...: I watched a flock of mergansers fighting each other for fish just off our lakefront a few weeks ago. They were all diving close together in the shallow water. Any time any one of them came up with a fish, all the others swooped in to grab it away, then turned on whichever merganser was the successful thief to grab it from HIM. The unfortunate fish were torn apart in the process. Likewise, a few years ago my family watched from kayaks in Olympia Harbor as a harbor seal devoured a huge salmon, ripping chunks out of it as it flapped its tail trying to escape, tossing it up to get a better bite, ripping more chunks off, tossing it into the air again, ripping off more. Remarkably gory, and it took the salmon a long time to die.

For that matter, watch a cat play with a mouse before killing it: it takes a long time, and there's nothing kind about it. The only animals that live gentle lives and die of old age are those that people protect and house, either as farm animals or pets.; 4/29/16, 9:15 AM
traditionalguy said...: Birds eat seeds and worms and bugs.

Eagles are carnivores. And they pair up to hunt in twos with one low and circling eagle called the Screaming Eagle that flushes out the small mammals so the 1,000 foot higher and not visible circling Eagle can dive down to seize the prey.

War Eagles became an old American symbol circling over Sherman's army of the Tennessee during battles.

And the 101st Airborne troopers tore up a lot of British birds in London on their first leave after the Normandy Campaign.; 4/29/16, 9:19 AM
Fernandinande said...: He is a Bird of bad moral Character. ...

Unusually stupid statements for Franklin, but anthropomorphism was even more popular in his time than it is now.

Should Animals Be Doing More For The Animal Rights Movement?; 4/29/16, 9:20 AM
John Henry said...: Good on the eagle.

I have always found cats a particularly useless kind of creature. A pet dog you can at least eat if you get hungry enough. You would have to be really hungry to eat a cat. Hardly enough meat to make it worthwhile. You might use up more calories catching preparing and consuming it than you got.; 4/29/16, 9:21 AM
Ron Winkleheimer said...: I have always found cats a particularly useless kind of creature.

Cats kill a lot of rodents: rats, mice, chipmunks, voles. So they are not useless, even though this predation upsets some people. However, what people who let cats roam seem to fail to consider, is that the cats are in danger of predation themselves. Foxes, coyotes, large dogs, owls, and, it appears, large raptors are all willing and able to eat a cat.; 4/29/16, 9:29 AM
Ipso Fatso said...: I have a 6 pound female that kills rabbits. Cats are killers and very good at it.; 4/29/16, 9:32 AM
Fabi said...: Kittens make an awful noise when you back over an entire bag of them with your car. Repeatedly.; 4/29/16, 9:33 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: So many birds, and so little time.; 4/29/16, 9:41 AM
Paddy O said...: Hooray for eagles!

I loved living in the mountains. No housecats to be found anywhere. Racoons, coyotes, bobcats, etc. were very efficient.

Where I live now, in the suburbs, housecats everywhere. I need more eagles.; 4/29/16, 9:42 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: I have always found cats a particularly useless kind of creature

You wouldn't feel that way if you were overrun with destructive vermin. Mice invading your house and your other buildings. Eating your food, gnawing at your baseboards pooping on your sheets in the linen closet and God knows where else in the house, carrying diseases like Hantavirus. Then the ground squirrels destroying your property with huge burrows that are eroding the banks and that make the orchard impossible to mow without running over the earth berms or falling into one of their collapsed burrow runs, gophers undermining your garden and lawns. Bubonic plague flea ridden vermin.

Go cat go!!!!

Even some of the birds that the cat eats or runs off are destructive pests who make nasty nests in the eaves of your buildings, leaving streams of bird crap on the walls and also carrying lice.

In the last few weeks Mr outdoor cat has killed at least 4 ground squirrels...they are big suckers too, many mice, 8 gophers that we know of (when he leaves some of the body parts or gopher guts...sing along...great big piles of greasy grimy...you know). He often brings his treasures to show us, or drops them into his food bowl in the workshop where he lives. I guess saving them for a midnight snack or something. Goooood boy!!!!!

No snakes yet because it is too cold. I really don't like him killing the snakes because they also like to eat the gophers and mice. The snakes, like the cats are quite useful.; 4/29/16, 9:42 AM
Paul said...: "Kittens make an awful noise when you back over an entire bag of them with your car. Repeatedly."

Hey sicko. You'd make some awful sounds to if I ever found you in the midst of such an act. I wouldn't think twice of ending the life of such a person were it not for the legal ramifications.; 4/29/16, 9:43 AM
buwaya said...: You can eat cat, or so it is said.
Back in Manila, so they say, the popular Chinese Pork buns -Siopao - also popularly considered to contain meat of questionable provenance - are called "Hello Kitty".; 4/29/16, 9:46 AM
rhhardin said...: Snakes do the mice in, where I live.

They also survive scything the lawn nicely, winding up scooped in the the windrow on the left looking surprised. They've evolved to deal with scythes.; 4/29/16, 9:51 AM
David said...: My 40 pound dog barks loudly at the eagle with perches in the tree by the river in our yard in the evening. But she isn't too interested in going over to the tree.; 4/29/16, 10:03 AM
n.n said...: Does the camera violate the eagle's right to privacy?

Pro-choice or selective empathy that would deprive the eagle and her young of their feline meal. Hopefully, the eagles appreciate their sacrificial cat.; 4/29/16, 10:19 AM
Dude1394 said...: It is amazing how far away from reality our insulated lives take us.; 4/29/16, 10:21 AM
Comanche Voter said...: Well eagles go for cats. My next door neighbor had a Yorkie--little white fluff ball and all that. The Yorkie looked good to a big ol owl who perched on the hillside above our houses. At around 0200 the owl made a dive bomb attack on the Yorkie who had gone out to "water the lawn". Fortunately the neighbor was out watching the little critter (we've got coyotes on the hill above us, and they are equal opportunity eaters when it comes to small domestic animals). The Yorkie wound up with a few punctures in its hide, but it was too big for the owl to carry away.

All's well that ends well. The Yorkie spent a couple of days at the local pet hospital and healed up nicely.; 4/29/16, 10:22 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Fabi said...
Kittens make an awful noise when you back over an entire bag of them with your car. Repeatedly.

This is common problem where I live. Between this racket and the shrieks of adult cats taken by eagles it is difficult to get to sleep some nights. Fortunately there is no shortage of Chinese restaurants in the local area and I can always get takeout on those nights when I can't sleep.; 4/29/16, 10:29 AM
Fabi said...: Lighten up, Francis -- it's a fucking joke.; 4/29/16, 10:29 AM
Fabi said...: That was directed at Paul, not my buddy ARM.; 4/29/16, 10:31 AM
Scott M said...: No safe spaces in nature...; 4/29/16, 11:27 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: This sort of thing really happens. Not just n the movies (notably that scene n The Proposal where the eagle got the min-do and Bullck was desperately trying to get it back). My partner and her ex took their cat to their ranch in MT. They let it out once, and an owl got it. Tore it up pretty good. They spent a fortune at the vet, and then it quickly ran away next time it got out. I keep trying to talk her into a cat, but we d have an agle's nest (thanks to the power company there) maybe a quarter mile away. It is kinda neat, esp when they have young in the nest.

Of course, it isn't just Eagles (or owls). Parents had a beautiful white long haired cat when they moved up to the mtns west of Denver. Used to let it out every day. One day, it came around to get back in, and they were too busy to get it. Never saw it alive again but did find white tufts of hair later. Turns out a pair of coyotes were working the neighborhood. Or, it could have been the fox. Not surprisingly, the cats after that were declawed and never let outside.

Finally, as to cats doing their own damage - I brought home their first cat on Mother's Day in 1st grade. Best friend's cat had kittens.... It was an outdoor cat, but did come into the garage to be fed. And that was the problem - at one point they had a female poodle that had been neutered after a couple litters. It had a sexual identity problem but was also rather glutenous and rather overweight. It would climb to get the cat's fod, even onto an uprigh freezer. We would figure this out by finding mostly eaten bird carcuses in the yard. Move his bowl, and the dead birds would mostly quit until the poodle figured out how to get his food again.; 4/29/16, 11:40 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: ARM - initially, when you started that last comment, and mentioned Chinese restaraunts, I thought you were alluding to their reputation of eating domestic pets. But I think that is mostly dogs, since they tend to have more meat. And then figured that wasn't your idea. Sorry.; 4/29/16, 11:45 AM
Jaq said...: Once I was at an outdoorsman show of some kind and their was a display of trophy deer heads. The most impressive to me,as fine or finer than any of the others wasn't taken by a hunter, it had grey fur on the top of its head, like an old man. I like to think that smart buck died of old age.; 4/29/16, 12:08 PM
Fritz said...: Eagles and Ospreys live and nest around our area in good numbers. I've seen countless Ospreys forced to drop their fish by an eagle circling overhead and threatening the Ospreys. On the other hand, experienced Ospreys are known to get the upper hand once in while and harass an eagle, usually a young one. Turnabout is fair play. When the Ospreys are gone south for the winter, the eagles resort to carrion much of the time (to be fair, most of the easy fish are gone too).; 4/29/16, 12:43 PM
Joe said...: There are too many cats and dogs, so hurray for the eagle.; 4/29/16, 3:32 PM
Captain Ned said...: I've lost two cats to what I presume are fishers.

A fisher is the mega-weasel, about 5 feet long nose to tail, permanently hungry, always with a bad attitude, and possessed of serious claws & teeth. Their call is best described as the sound a baby would make if someone was strangling it to death. That call must be deep in the dog genome as every time we hear it our beagle-mutt is frantically baying and clawing at the door to repel the menace he hears in his DNA. Given his size, we don't let him out.; 4/29/16, 5:23 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Our cat stays indoors. He doesn't try to get out, though he wouldn't be allowed to leave if he did. Perhaps he's been reading about eagles.; 4/29/16, 5:38 PM
n.n said...: Evolution is a chaotic process. It is not predictable. It is certainly not progressive or monotonic change. It is characterized by states and paths of indeterminate volatility, span, and dynamics outside of a limited frame of reference.

That said, it's not just the dodos that were caught of guard. Human civilizations, including Western civilization, are predisposed to suffer progressive dysfunction and capture in a voluntary progressive decline, and are eventually replaced by alien peoples.

I suppose the bald eagle's struggle... how appropriate... is a sign of things to come.; 4/29/16, 7:00 PM
Doug said...: Nature, red in tooth and claw ....; 4/29/16, 8:50 PM
Dude1394 said...: " Benjamin Franklin had his opinion::"

Well the founding fathers were not infallible. The eagle is a truly majestic bird and a wonderful national signal. A turkey, seriously?; 4/29/16, 10:20 PM
Michael K said...: The worst ravages by domestic cats are in England where they are wiping out songbirds.

Go, eagles, Go !

We were in Alaska in an RV park 20 years ago and were told by the people in the next space that they had lost their small dog to an eagle the prior week.; 4/30/16, 7:45 PM