Jan. 2, 2018
Liz Writes Life
Quite the drama played-out at my place last Saturday morning.
I had just sat down in the living room to drink my chocolate milk and gazed out
the window. Way down in the trees something black moved. Was it a bear? Too
dark for the deer that wander throughout the area. Hum? Did Jack have some
binoculars? Didn’t have the faintest idea where they might be – still don’t!
Checked again. Oh, it looked like a giant bird. Just then a
bald-headed eagle flew low taking a closer look then swooped-up and landed in
the nearby pine tree. I decided the giant bird must be a golden eagle; and then
two more golden eagles (they were smaller) flew low through the trees. By this
time, I could tell the first eagle was rapidly tearing at something – eating.
The bald eagle was hungry and wanted a bite of breakfast, too, so he swooped-down
landing 15-feet or so away from the golden eagle. Seemingly impatient, he
walked towards the golden eagle, who menacingly flapped his wings. He was
bigger and was not going to share!
About that time, one of the smaller golden eagles tried to
dive-bomb the bald eagle. Guess they were buddies and in cahoots. The bald
eagle extended his wings and was immediately air-born, flew around the pine
tree and swooped past my window with the two smaller golden eagles gliding behind
him. During this time, I could see smaller birds hopping around in the
lower-limbs of the trees and the ground. A lot of attention was being paid to
whatever was being devoured. I figured it must have been a dead deer, because
the breakfast crowd was growing.
How much longer before the big golden eagle would have his
fill and the next birds could eat, I wondered. After 10 minutes or so, the bald
eagle did not make any more appearances and I didn’t see the other two goldens
either. And then the big golden was gone.
After all that commotion, I decided to go check and see what
the prey may have been. Nope, it wasn’t a deer. No deer bones, but lots of
tuffs of grey-white hair with white under-fluff. Then I saw a remaining tendon.
I rubbed the fur. Soft. Must have been a rabbit. Wow, all of that dramatic
posturing over a little ol’ jack rabbit?
It is winter and the mice, squirrels, rats and other small
animals are not in abundance. Believe it or not, I actually hoped all the other
eagles and birds were able to fill their bellies on that cold winter morning,
which would be the tragic end to smaller animals.
This reminded me of the pecking-order I saw years ago. A
young buck ran into me on the big turn between Fay Lane and French Creek on Hwy
3. (Yep, he ran into me!) He took out my headlight, but I had slammed on the
brakes and didn’t kill him. He had jumped the fence into the field. So, I
thought, he might live.
The next day as I was driving by that spot, I noticed several
golden eagles eating ravenously about 50-feet from the fence. It was the buck
-- dead. There were three eagles and they were actually sharing enough to call
it “group” dining. I was so amazed that I stopped the car and was able to get a
photo. The biggest golden starred me down. It was his food and I was not
welcome. I was shocked that the big one did not fly away. Hum, I need to find
that photo.
As I drove by the next day, two bald-headed eagles were
filling their bellies and I spotted several red-tailed hawks, black ravens and
smaller birds waiting for their turns. I stopped to take a photo, but the bald
eagles were camera-shy and flew-off. Cars could drive by at 55 mph, but if one
slowed down the bald eagles and hawks were gone. For several days, I tried to
get photos of the bald eagles and have blurred photos to prove it.
I drove by twice a day and noticed that the bigger birds were
eating in the morning and the smaller birds ate on the carcass in the
afternoon. About the third day, I saw something that proves there is truly a
pecking-order in the world of wildlife – and it starts with the biggest to the
smallest. It was fairly early in the morning and I was still hoping to get a clear
photo of the bald eagles. Having learned the birds were more likely to ignore
me if I slowed my car speed well before I was to the scene, I looked out and
there were the three golden eagles eating and about 15-feet away the two bald
eagles were standing -- waiting for their turns. About eight-feet back from
them were several hawks and not far behind them were a semi-circle of black
ravens. Then there were blue jays, starlings, other birds that I don’t know
their names and very small birds on the outer-edge.
These birds formed a half-circle on the north-east side away
from Highway 3. And the half-circle of largest to the smallest was nearly
perfect. This was not a scattered crowd. The order was specific as was the
space between each group.
Oh, how I wanted to get a photo! This was one of the most interesting
things I had ever witnessed and couldn’t prove it with a photo. Instinctively,
I knew if I slowed much more the eagles would be the first to fly away. Chickens!
So there you have it, my remembrance of the buck I,
accidentally, killed feeding a lot of birds.
Liz Bowen began writing ranch and
farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County
and lives near Callahan. Call her at 530-467-3515. Check out her blog at:
LizWritesLife.blogspot.com.
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