I spent the morning of 10/19/2012 on Ray Roberts checking out my newly rebuilt outboard and doing a little bass fishing. While the bass didn't cooperate very well, it turned out to be a great day to be on the water.
While fishing in Sand Branch, I noticed some deer walking/swimming from the north bank to the island near the mouth of Sand Branch. I was too far away to make a photo of the but we counted 5 doe deer that made the trek and then ran off into the woods. A few minutes later, they were followed by 3 more deer along the same "path".
A while later we noticed a young eagle perched on an dead tree in one of the coves. In maneuvering the boat around to get a better look we disturbed the eagle enough that it flew away - with the fish that it had apparently been eating before it flew to another location.
Never thought that I would wish for telephoto lens for use on the lake but it would have been real nice to have those shots in the library.

Good memories on a beautiful day.

+1


Eagles show up and I, unfortunately, check out at that point, as far as fishing is concerned....always love to watch them....even got to basically feed some eagles in Prince Rupert, Canada once...awesome experience to say the least....and found out that they love some fresh rock perch...

I had an eagle fly over my boat on Roberts once in December - won't ever forget that experience!

From last winter on Ray Roberts (Sand Branch):

Great pics! Thanks for posting them.

That is NEAT!

Saw a cougar come down the big rock point in sand several years ago. Got about 80 yards from her, wishing I hand a camera. Always see a lot of deer in the fall/winter up there.

I've seen deer (as many as 13 in a herd), turkeys (even a tom who spread his tail feathers out for me), eagles, ospreys, hawks, buzzards, gulls, cranes, pelicans, beaver, nutria, coyotes, cows (cattle in general), horses, and even a bobcat who walked up the north side of Lick Creek for several hundred yards, while I fished up that side only a cast away from it. Lots of wildlife to see. Sometimes we are harassed and blessed by some female wildlife riding on jet skis or sun bathing on the deck of a boat. I throw a slab spoon at the male jet ski wildlife who harass me while fishing. Caught one once on Eagle Mountain. Not as many on Ray Bob as they don't really like the trees and stumps. There's probably some other wildlife I've also seen but at the moment can't recall it. Wish I had seen as many bass as I had of the other wildlife.

Oily, was up in sand on the same day as you and also saw the deer. Beautiful day to be on teh lake.
Missed the eagle though.

Earlier this yuer also in Sand, but further back, I saw three deer do the same thing. They came hauling Arse out of the grass on the bank a swam to the south bank. They were too far for me to get a good picture, but I tried, heads just look like more stumps in the water. It was a very cool thing to witness.

There is an eagle's nest in Flat creek, sticks as big
around as my wrist, Huge !

Pretty cool....get a pic or two, Rudy, if you can...always am amazed at the size of their nests.....next time I'm at The Fork, if I can spot any, might try what we did in Canada...but substitute a white bass for the rock perch and see if they'll come down for the free meal....just gotta make sure to back out or clear the immediate area in time...

Saw an eagle snatch a bass at Fork bout 20 years ago
like alaska kool !

I've seen deer in just about every creek on the east side and on Wolf Island, Bobcat in Pilot Point cove, hogs in Indian, turkey in Wolf. I've never seen an eagle on Ray Roberts but have seen a bunch of Osprey. I'm not on the lake much in the winter though.