The Ravens that nest on my West Danby hillside are currently down on a deer carcass, which I dragged into the woods just this morning for their benefit in this, their nesting season.
The deer was killed by some predator last night. The killing seems to have taken place at the water's edge, in the pond. Gobbets of flesh are sunk at the site, and the surface of the pond is strewn with lots and lots of deer hair. The carcass itself was dragged over the dike and disemboweled there. No obvious tracks or blood trail or anything like that led away, but I found a large pile of entrails 200 feet off, all by itself. I had been thinking coyotes, but this afternoon my next door neighbor called me about another matter, and happened to mention that her yard was visited last night by a very large animal that she presumed to be a bear. Hmm... Maybe I should have another look at that carcass. I have a few bluebird houses at the pond, that I hoped might attract some Tree Swallows. This morning I was surprised to see a Bluebird singing from the very top of one of the tallest trees overlooking the pond, as if to say "look what I found"! -Geo Kloppel -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
