On Feb. 25 Andrew Chesser of Folkston, Georgia, was shopping with his wife in nearby Kingsland. They’d just finished having lunch when his cell phone notifications started pouring in.
“One of my trail cameras on our hunting property was taking photos,” Chesser tells Outdoor Life. “I got several notifications, and I finally check the photos and I couldn’t believe what they showed.”
Swiping through the images, Chesser saw that an eagle had dive-bombed two wild turkeys on his hunting property near the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge, where he also works. The series of photos, captured around midday, show the deadly speed and efficiency of a large eagle on the hunt.
In the first photo, the eagle is dropping down onto the two birds, a hen and a gobbler. The eagle’s wings are spread and its talons outstretched. The gobbler is facing the camera, its longbeard and red head visible as it flaps to escape the giant bird.
The hen also tries to fly out of the way, but is unable to make it very far. In the next photo, captured just a few minutes later, the eagle is standing on top of the dead hen.
“When I saw the photos, I thought the eagle had taken the gobbler,” says Chesser, 27. “That’s when I called my brother Tyler, who I knew was pretty close to our hunting lease that afternoon. I asked him to go and check it out.”
Tyler got to the trail camera location within an hour to survey the scene.
“The eagle was gone. It had killed the hen, not the gobbler, and had dragged it about 10 yards away to eat it. That was out of the camera view, so we didn’t get photos of that.”
Tyler found the spot where the eagle collided with the turkey, and feathers were strewn all over the ground. The hen carcass had clearly been fed on, and all its breast meat was stripped away.
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“That eagle was plenty hungry,” Andrew says. “He didn’t leave much behind.”
After carefully reviewing the photos, the Chesser brothers believed the eagle was a golden – a very rare bird in Southeast Georgia. They sent the photos to a biologist with the Georgia DNR, who confirmed that it was indeed a golden eagle, and not a bald eagle.
“We see a good number of bald eagles here, but goldens are uncommon,” Andrew says. “They said goldens are seen occasionally in Charlton County, but not often. That’s something our turkey population will be glad to hear.”
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