I was picking up a beaver trap i had set on the Chippewa river today. As I approached the set a large Bald Eagle took flight from the rivers edge. The water had dropped overnight exposing the blanket beaver and the Eagle ate a front shoulder. The leg hole in pelt will be alittle bigger than normal. Lol At least I didn't have to fight for possession!
Decades ago when I started trapping you never had to contend with Eagles on the line. Now they are very common.

Another spot on a creek I've been trapping for several days i caught the second of a pair of 2 yr Olds in a castor mound with a Bridger 5# dogless. I had a float set 10 yds downstream. A beaver had swam right by the float and left tracks and a castor mnd back behind the float on the shore. I'm sure it was 2nd of the pair of beaver I caught as this was a new pair that showed up this fall.
I've had good luck with floats in the past but these beaver wouldn't work them. A trapper is always learning.

Good story, Walt! Reminds me of a time I had a beaver set below a high bank on the Black River. Went in the morning to check and when I approached I could see ripples going out into the River from the set. I said "Well, what do we have here?" out loud. Right then a big Eagle flew up and over the high bank no more than 3-4 feet away from me. I could feel the wind in his wings. Somehow a muskrat had gotten into the trap and the Eagle decided to have him for breakfast. I climbed down and pulled the muskrat from the trap and laid it on a downed tree in the River. I figured the Eagle deserved it after the show and rush he had given me.

Moosetrot

Indeed good story. When I was running DPs on drowners for 'coon the river dropped a foot and a half plus between checks. This wasn't the only one snacked on.

Sorry to hear about your beaver Walt. A few years ago a buddy had the same thing happened to him here in North Central Pennsylvania.

For the last week, I’ve been dumping my beaver carcasses down on a log landing away from the property so my dogs don’t get after them. I was pretty amazed, how fast the eagle, hawks, ravens and vultures, cleaned them down to bare bones.

Yesterday I hadn’t dumped any for a while. I walked out off the front porch to see a bald eagle sitting in a tree 30 yards from my red lab pup who was laying there gnawing on a deer bone oblivious to his surroundings.

The eagle was eyeballing the pup pretty hard but flushed when my black lab saw it and started barking at it. She saved her little buddy. LOL

Nice catches.Good job patching it up.