The Flicker Haven Farm Files-The Bald Eagle Buffet

avatar


Cupcake (3).png

Do to my life being a bit of a melee (in a good way) and that I have a personal requirement to always try to post quality content, most of the time I tend to post every other day.

There have also been stretches where I haven't posted for a week or two. My diesel truck's engine blowing up 1600 miles from home in New Mexico springs to mind...

paw divider transparent.png

Anyway, I had a full day ahead of me today, as I hadn't been home for about four days or so, I had pallet and a half of laundry to catch up on and a very messy house to square away.

And to be honest, I kinda needed a day off. You know how it is, when you just need to do some non-writing activity. The weather was garbage outside (and still is), an almost snowing swirl of hail, sleet, and big ol fat stinging rain. I was happy to stay in my wood fire warmed abode and do domestic things like fold never ending sports wear, vacuum self-replicating piles of pet hair, and wash up all the dishes that were cluttering my counters.

The day was going well. Then my daughter, who had come home from school and gone out to clean her show calf's stall, came in and told me to, "come outside right now!"

I could tell by her excited tone that it was something pretty awesome.


And it was. At first.


Sitting on two separate posts in my barnyard were two juvenile bald eagles. Both of them were young enough that they didn't have their distinguished white heads yet, and the female, she was a beast, easily the size of a three year old kid.

They were just chilling in the barn yard, staring at the cows. With the weather being all weird, I wondered if they just stopped for a pit stop, but usually raptors touch down for a bit of a snack, and sure enough, the daughter and I discovered their snack.

That's were the sad part came in. My heifer had had a miscarriage.

Now, on a farm with livestock, you get to experience your fair share of sad circle of life things. Animals, especially young mammals, do lose their offspring on occasion. Thankfully here it has been a rare thing, but still, having her lose her baby three months before the little creature was due kinda really sucked.

Then, seeing the Nature Is Metal scene of the eagles enjoying their lucky bounty kinda stung a bit too.

IMG_5434.JPG

I get it, things gotta eat. I mean, I raise cattle to eat, so I am no different, the situation was just a bit sad. I especially felt for my kiddo, she loves her heifer and was super excited for her first calf.

IMG_5427.jpg

Me, I have been through this before, both as a farmer and a mother. It sucks, but it also happens, and it's better all the way around to embrace the moment of sadness and then move forward with the realization that life has to life. But dangit if it isn't gross and sad sometimes.

paw divider transparent.png

After closer inspection, it looks like the little calf wasn't developing correctly. Whether it was from genetics or environment there is really no way to know. Chloe (the heifer) is a club calf (breed) so who knows what kind of genetic soup is going on in her genetic code. I know I fed her an incredibly well-balanced diet, so I feel pretty confident about her nutrition during gestation, and I intentionally kept her out of the back ten acres because there are a lot of pines back there and chewing on those can cause abortions in livestock.

After explaining to the kiddo that it could have been a blessing, and making sure the cats and my little dog were secure in the house, I looked out at the feasting eagles. They have to eat too, and they are really quite gorgeous animals.

IMG_5437.JPG

Except maybe to our resident raven. Man, that guy has a death wish. He keeps screaming obscenities at the eagles and dive bombing them of all things. He thinks the barnyard is his and that they shouldn't be crashing his pad.

I wish death hadn't crashed my pad today either, but for one to exist you have to have the other...


Flicker Haven Farm Files page divider.png


And as not most of the time, Most of the images in this post were taken on my daughter's Samsung Galaxy phone, with a couple snapped on the author's still alive and thriving iPhone. The pics aren't the greatest because we didn't want to get too close. The text divider image was made in Canva.




0
0
0.000
30 comments
avatar

I can tell you from personal experience that raptors are remarkably difficult to provoke. The harriers where I live are routinely harassed by blue jays (also corvids, if you didn't already know) and even robins, but it takes several minutes of continuous dive-bombing before the harrier finally decides to bugger off. I need some better optics, but when I finally get some, perhaps I'll be able to take some decent pictures of such avian antics. For now, the chickens will have to suffice.

BTW, do you butcher your own cattle, and if so, how difficult is it?

0
0
0.000
avatar

They are super tolerant (or patient), or maybe it's top of the food chain indifference? lol! The raven dive bombed them in random intervals for hours, they didn't seem perturbed.

And I love chicken pictures😊

Cattle butchering is a pretty big chore, especially if you don't have the right equipment (a tractor works well for suspending the carcass and you absolutely have to have a mechanized grinder for all that hamburger, and if it isn't fall/winter you better have a cooler to age the carcass!). I have done it before, but these days I prefer to leave it to the expert, my dear friend Butcher Bob is an artist. He's been butchering in these parts since 1969 and is still going strong even though he's in his 80's (It's a multi generation, family run operation).

That said, we do our smaller stuff like deer, goats, rabbits, chickens, and the occasional pig (I really like Bob's sausage recipe though, so he usually does the pigs too!).

0
0
0.000
avatar

"Top of the food chain indifference," LOL, I'm definitely using that one!

I doubt I'll ever start raising any large animals, but it's always nice to know what to expect. One of my neighbours raised pigs for a while, but I think it was a bit much for him; they kept escaping and hanging out with the other neighbour's goats.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I wouldn't be surprised if the goats didn't instigate the pig escape initiative. Now there's a species of animal that is in the dictionary under the mischief entry. Good lords did they cause me no end of grief for the fifteen years I raised them.

But they were so tasty and cute at times lol!

And I wish more people were as awesome as you when it comes to livestock. They automatically want to go big first, and I am like, "You want to try some chickens and rabbits before you go with that $5000, 1200lb dairy cow?" I know so many people who have gotten hurt or worse yet, the animals got hurt or perished, because people were in such a dang hurry to homestead that they didn't put the learning work in.

Oof, and I didn't mean to get all sermony there, lol, hope you are having a lovely morning with your hens😊

0
0
0.000
avatar

I didn't know that bald eagles will eat carrion. Here, we would have vultures doing that job. First pregnancies can often go awry in all creatures, and I hope it urns out to be a once-off

0
0
0.000
avatar

Yep, they used to steal our neighborhood pets, dead or alive, in Alaska all the time. We have vultures too, but not too many of them for some reason.

And that's exactly what I told my daughter, you are so right, first pregnancies can definitely go awry. I hope it's a one off thing too, otherwise I have to deal with some even more unpleasant decisions....hooray for the fun side of farming...

Hope all is well on your side of the world😊

0
0
0.000
avatar

It really shows you love animals a lot and having the eagles as well is really nice

0
0
0.000
avatar

I am very, very fond of animals, you are so right! Even if they cause me all sorts of headaches lol!

Thanks for stopping by!

0
0
0.000
avatar

All I can say to this: The most amazing writing skills of anyone I read on Hive.

Have an amazing day my friend 😀

!BBH

!ALIVE

!CTP

0
0
0.000
avatar

That's right kind of ya Mr. Positivity! And appreciated, the last few days have been a bit challenging lol!

Hope your day is progressing beyond positively!

!CTP

!PIZZA

0
0
0.000
avatar

Because this is such an awesome post, here is a BBH Tip for you. . Keep up the fantastic work

0
0
0.000
avatar

Because this is such an awesome post, here is a BBH Tip for you. . Keep up the fantastic work

0
0
0.000
avatar

Such a bummer about the calf. But watching 2 eagles in your yard doesn't happen every day...

0
0
0.000
avatar

It was definitely both horrible and awesome at the same time. I enjoyed watching those two beautiful creatures, and our heifer is doing great, so overall it could have been much worse!

0
0
0.000
avatar

The eagles are pretty smart. I think they just ignore these birds much like we would ignore an annoying sibling.
Sorry for your daughter's loss, but unfortunately she has to experience it some time and she had you there to both explain it and comfort her.
Having two awesome birds hanging around for the day was certainly a nice touch.

0
0
0.000
avatar

They did ignore Brother Raven for the two days they were here. Now that they are gone, he's in a better mood lol!

Thanks😊 She got through her upsetness pretty quickly, it was more that she felt bad for the heifer than anything. And yes, it was a picture of an awful and awesome thing, those birds were gorgeous!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Wow I guess all you can do is wait to see what happens. The Raven is going to have to deal with it.
thanks for the great post.
!CTP

0
0
0.000
avatar

They ended up staying and feasting for a couple of days and then just like that, they were gone. Brother Raven is much happier now lol!

Thanks for stopping by!

!CTP

0
0
0.000
avatar

It's too bad about the animal miscarriage but it looks like the animals have taken a liking to your farm. I don't think I would want anything to do with eagles and ravens.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Oh yes, our farm is home to all sorts of creatures, ones who are supposed to be here and ones who wander in. We've had cougars, bears, wolves, peacocks, turkeys, quail, and many, many other random creatures wander though. It's never dull lol!

0
0
0.000
avatar

I didn't see any raptors upclose, our people not so friendly with creatures they don't benefit 😩 yet the nature has a balance and every creature is beneficial to earth. Life cycle may seem cruel sometimes but it's vital.

Thanks for this lovely post !CTP

0
0
0.000
avatar

You are so right, it definitely was an illustrative life cycle moment. Both the grotesque and beautiful aspects of life were present. And the raptors were honestly pretty chill, that said, I gave them their space too lol!

Thanks for stopping by!

!PIZZA

!CTP

0
0
0.000
avatar

This is an amazing experience. Is that all the eagles that showed up? I would have that more would have come. Thanks for sharing.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Yep, only the two juveniles showed up, and the larger female stayed in the barnyard for two days. The cats sure stayed out of sight during that time too lol!

Thanks for stopping by!

0
0
0.000
avatar

This is so fascinating for a city person like me to read. Nature in all of its beauty and horror. Everything on this planet consumes some living matter in order to live. That is the true blessing and curse of Mother Earth.
Thank you for the glimpse of your life.

0
0
0.000