Saturday, January 26, 2008

My neighbors



Our neighbor dumped another deer carcass in the valley across from our house and the eagles have come back in full force. There are several adults and a few youngsters. But the turkey vultures have discovered the free meal as well and there have been quite a few altercations between the two groups.




The eagles tend to hog the carcass and the vultures surround them in a ring, not daring to move too close. A bunch of crows hop around the outside and dart in once in a while, causing everyone to fly up. It's quite entertaining to watch all this activity in that ordinarily peaceful meadow.

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At lunchtime, someone new joined the crowd - a fox ! He watched the eagles for a long time until one of the birds saw him and they flew to a nearby tree. There was a long stand-off, each animal staring at the other, until the fox decided to curl up and take a nap and the eagles came back to eat some more.

Mr. Fox's patience paid off, however, and now the eagles have finished their meal and it's his turn to feast. You can just see the deer carcass at the end of his tail.


1 comment:

Emlyn Stancill Whitin said...

Wow! All that activity - it's like good old Marty Stauffer! So cool about the fox. I miss wildlife!