They know our schedules and are obviously watching us. That point was made apparent to me yet again last Friday, when my wife Jodi left the house about the usual time to head to the office. I was working from home that day, but the eagles, ravens, and vultures apparently hadn’t gotten the memo.
Within minutes of the car disappearing down the driveway, they showed up, with an interest in the already well-picked-over remains of a hunter-harvested deer carcass I had put out near the house earlier in the winter. But it’s apparently a lean time for these scavengers, so they were willing to scrape the last bits of meat and sinew of the increasingly gnawed bones.
Why it suddenly had their attention this morning wasn’t clear to me, although the fact that the carcass had been moved the day before told me that perhaps the scavengers were tracking the predators as well.
Somehow, word had gotten out and they were ready to get the party started, such as it was.
I was busy writing when I noticed a bald eagle drop out of the sky and land not more than 20 feet from the house. Then I looked out the window and the vultures were circling. Ravens joined them moments later. A second bald eagle showed up and perched high in an aspen, probably the mate of the first eagle to appear. There’s a pair of eagles that now nest every year in a big white pine on the shore of Lost Lake, and I suspected these birds were looking for breakfast. With the ice still thick on most area lakes, the bald eagles won’t have access to much fresh food for a few more days anyway.
The first bald eagle stuck to the carcass, working off small bits of the scraps still remaining. All the other birds just circled or sat, but never moved in closer. After watching for a few minutes, it dawned on me that this was a photo opportunity, so I grabbed my camera with the big lens and set up in an upstairs window to watch and grab some images of the excitement.
It was much ado about next to nothing as it turned out since it seemed there wasn’t enough meat left on those bones to satisfy a chickadee much less a dozen vultures, half a dozen ravens, and two bald eagles.
It was the second bald eagle that eventually called a halt to it all. With its eagle eyes, it eventually spotted my movements in the upstairs window. After thinking about it for 10-15 seconds, it finally grew restless, then turned and flew away in the direction from which it had come. It all seemed to happen without a sound or any noticeable signal, but as the eagle slowly flew off, all the other scavengers got the message and quickly scattered to the wind as well. As suddenly as it had formed, the party was over.
It’s as if they finally got the message that, despite our usual behavioral pattern, on this particular day there was still a human on the premises. Which was apparently more than enough reason to get the heck out of there.