Charleigh Smiles.... Raptors steal poultry

Monday, April 24, 2006 Charleigh Smiles Current mood: cheerful Charleigh has been smiling lately (while awake that is). She has been animated and so much fun - squeaking and making all kinds of little noises. She is discovering her voice! A little while ago I caught her smile on camera. She is such a doll and so much fun!! 5:40 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Sunday, April 23, 2006 EAGLES are getting my poultry Current mood: indescribable Category: Pets and Animals We have been losing some of our poultry to birds of prey (raptors). It is NOT nice. Usually owls come and get our guineas but lately we have lost a couple to eagles. A couple weeks ago one came down across the yard from us and scooped up a guinea and took off with it. If you have never heard a guinea... they make noise all the time. They really noisy and they warn you of intruders etc. Well imagine 30 guineas screaming while the one that is being carted off screams bloody murder.... it is very creepy and terrifying. Something you would see on the discovery channel!!!! And I would prefer that it stayed on the discovery channel. So I have been trying to get photos of these birds because they have returned a few times now. Today I got a couple decent ones. This bird was right over my head and my camera ran out of batteries so I had to run inside, get more batteries, and come back out only to have him much farther away. But, I still got the best photos so far. We are guessing that this is a juvenile bald eagle - one that doesn't have all the white on it yet - and one that is very bold and not scared off by people as it's hunting. Here is a photo of how far away it was from me when I finally got photos of it. It's soaring above the trees in our pasture. Here are some that I blew up so we could see him better. And here is a photo of what a young bald eagle looks like close up (not my photo): 3:00 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove