The other day, a friend and I were driving down a somewhat quiet highway in Southern Australia, when we saw three huge wedge-tailed eagles feeding on a kangaroo on the side of the road. Being an eagle lover, I was extremely excited, and it was the first time Id seen eagles while being here. Because we saw them at the last second, we passed them at a fair speed and they naturally flew up and into the air above. As we were on a round trip, we figured that wed be back in around 20 minutes, and theyd still be there, but this time we could sneak up on them and get to enjoy the sight of one of the worlds biggest birds of prey. When we returned, we were extremely shocked to see them being harassed by a group of about 8 to 9 black crows. Now, this was totally unexpected, and maybe its the norm, but to see three huge birds with a wingspan of around three and a half feet being harassed by birds that could easily be a snack to an eagle, was to say the least, a shock to the system. At one stage we saw a crow, single-handedly, chase one of the eagles off into the distance, while the other 7 or 8 were patrolling above the dead kangaroo. To my right I noticed one of eagles, perched in a tree, looking defeated while the third was flying well above at what seemed to be a higher altitude, almost as if it knew the crows couldnt fly that high. We did stop and get out, probably about 80 100 yards from the kangaroo, hoping the eagles would fight back, but it just seemed they had accepted their loss. Maybe they figured there was plenty of road kill to go around (which was the case, the number of dead kangaroos on the road was astounding), but what was to stop them being harassed by another group of crows. As a lover of eagles, I like to collect eagle figurines, as they give me a sense of pride but I must say, I felt a little disappointed at the site of three huge eagles not getting there own way, especially by birds a lot smaller than them. It goes to show, Mother Nature works in mysterious ways, and I truly appreciate this fact, certainly more now than perhaps before. My other disappointment, was not having a camera available at the time. Many thanks to Steven Nicks for his story. This story will be published on Wild Figurines web site. |
