I used to live on the river in a house on stilts, we dealt with raptors all the time, eagles predominantly. We used to just let the dogs out to potty until the time we had a poodle puppy and I heard an eagle squawk....I ran out so fast and kept the pup close to the house. It circled our slough for an hour afterwards.

I usually see an eagle every day, the days I do not seems empty. Osprey are all around and there is a nest several miles away where they take up housekeeping every year. There is also a red tailed hawk that sits on one of the light posts at work, he always looks to see what is going on around there. We also have a number of crows and we are starting to see ravens. This along with the deer and elk are a treat.

During my youth in the UK, you hardly ever saw a raptor of any sort, except perhaps, a kestrel. The hunting and shooting lobby had driven them almost to extinction, because it was said they were harmful to game birds, especially pheasants and grouse. But a few decades ago they were all given protection, and now just twenty or thirty years later, buzzards and red kites especially are seen all the time around here. Things that we thought were gone forever. It just shows how fast nature recovers as soon as it is left in peace. And we still have plenty of pheasants.

Back in 2014 or 2015, I was riding my bike through the UW Arboretum in Madison late at night when I saw a huge shadow hanging in the air ahead of me, pacing me. It was a huge owl, looking for prey along the edges of the road by the light of my bike headlamp. I am sure it was a owl because it was SILENT. I could hear absolutely nothing of this large bird only four or five feet in front of me, gliding through the air at about 15 mph.

This isn't exactly a raptor story but a homing pigeon story.

My father grew up in NE and wanted pigeons most of his life. So when we bought a house on the edge of the Navajo reservation when I was in grade school one of the first things we did was build a walk-in loft. At any given time we had upwards of 40 birds.

Unfortunately there were wild hawks in our desert so it wasn't very safe for the pigeons.
We worked up to 80-100 mile flights and we took the birds out 10 or so at a time to find their own ways home.

When we'd release the birds, they'd always circle for a few minutes at a couple of hundred yards -- I presume to get their bearings.

One time while they were circling a hawk jumped up off the ground and hit a bird from below. The pigeon panicked and folded its wings and drove the hawk right back into the ground. The pigeon flew on but the hawk stayed behind. We didn't try to walk out and check on it.

As far as we could tell the pigeon was ok. It got pretty scared and actually got home before we did. Ha, ha.

We treated hawks as a generally visually pleasing annoyance. One morning I woke up to a hawk on top of the loft in the back yard -- working on the wire trying to figure out how how to get in.
We shooed them away and otherwise ignored them -- the pattern of life I guess.

Since raptors are dinosaur-related birds, I have a poisonous snake story.
While taking a break after canoeing in one of central Florida’s many rivers, I was seated on a wooden dock dangling my feet in the water when on the water’s surface I saw a dark-colored snake swimming toward me. I had studied Florida’s snakes and knew water moccasins to be one of the few snakes that will attack. I immediately pulled my feet from the water. The snake turned and swam away.

Not a raptor moment as such but one day in the field where I normally exercise my dogs, my Collie flushed a pheasant from the long grass, and as the pheasant flew out, my Husky jumped up and caught the bird in the air. What teamwork! It was spectacular to witness.

US1 near me parallels the Intracoastal Waterway which is brackish. At dusk I have seen pelicans flying away from the water with fish flopping in their talons.

We have a red tailed hawk that has been nesting in the park across the street. We also have hundreds of squirrels. I used to walk my dog in the park mid morning when there were few people there. I could always tell when the hawk had returned for nesting, because the squirrels didn't know where to run. My dog unwittingly became a hunting partner for the hawk couple. He would chase the squirrels into the open an once in a while the haw would swoop down and grab the squirrel mid chase. Muggsy never thought of the hawk as a threat and seemed to enjoy the pairing.

I also have a fish pond in my backyard. In the spring the ospreys return. I was out one day and this missile drops out of the sky straight into the fish pond. Next thing I know the osprey has a 10 inch goldfish in her talons and is launching back into the sky. I see them patrolling every spring, they should be back soon.

Fishing on a lake in Maine. I caught a fish, threw it back, it was dying. After we separated by a couple of hundred yards, a bald eagle swooped down and plucked MY dying fish out of the water

Amazing birds have many here

I live next to a wooded area which is next to a big lake and the trees here are full of eagles, owls, hawks and many other critters of various species. I see the eagles soaring overhead frequently and I think it's awesome but I do worry about my dog when she's sunning herself outside. From high above she looks like a perfect meal for lunch to an eagle on the hunt so I keep an eye on the skies whenever she's out there.

I love listening to the owls late at night. They make the woods sound haunted. It's very cool.

Putin and the Ukraine