Trego's Mountain Ear

It’s Saturday afternoon, and I have just watched a young bald eagle attack a flock of turkeys – the attack started maybe 100 yards from me, and the turkeys immediately scattered and fled into the timber on the side of the hill.

The eagle’s ability to dive and fly faster than the turkeys might have made a difference if it had connected in the field.  Like I said, the eagle was young – it landed at the edge of the trees and tried to walk in and hunt turkeys from the ground.  By this time, I’m calling Renata to watch this operation.  I can’t tell for sure, but it looks like all of the turkeys have parked in trees, with none left on the ground.  I watch the eagle walking at the edge of the trees for maybe half a minute of unsuccessful hunting.  It flies off, perhaps 50 yards, picking a spot to watch for a careless turkey.

It wasn’t to be.  Two ravens had spotted the eagle, and as it started to fly back toward the turkeys, the ravens moved down to harass the eagle.  After two passes by the ravens, the eagle decided that it didn’t want a turkey dinner that day and flew away.

The turkey flock has hens whose hatchlings have been the ravens’ prey since Spring.  One was finally successful raising 4 little birds on her third clutch.  They definitely weren’t falling for the old cliche “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”  From the turkey hens’ perspective, the enemy of my enemy is just the enemy of my enemy, not a third-class friend.  We could stand to have a few more national level politicians that understand that perspective.