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The Carrion Feeders "It would be dead silent in the woods today if it wasn't for the wind. It's not actually a strong wind, rather a small breeze. But with a cap on my head that covers my freezing ears, and the sound of my boots plowing through the snow, the wind is everything I can hear. I stop for a minute to catch my breath. Breathing heavily and cursing under my breath over the heavy camera equipment, I wonder if I will really need everything. I decided I might as well bring everything, you never know what shows up today. Standing still and listening I hear the scratching of a small field-mouse somewhere beneath a pine. The sound just proves how the otherwise silent forest, lies with it being silent. Behind the silence, it's full of life. I carry on to the carrion and I can already make out the silhouette of the hide but nothing seems to be moving on the carrion. The hide is built with a robust base. Old rotting percs are still standing that once gave the hide more cover. It's hard to come here without thinking about building a new hide here. Now the wind blows right through the windows and chill the bones. It was built about ten years ago by the others before us. Older than us and the keepers of secrets. I still sometimes sense the feel of wonder when I hear their stories. Stories of the past, stories that are almost ancient for me. The stories of the first eagle that landed on the carrion sometime in the 1970's, when almost all eagles had died due to environmental poisoning. I wonder how that felt. Will I ever know? No, probably not.. Which is just as well because I rather live in a world without further environmental disasters. |
After I've set up everything and made myself comfortable, I pour myself a cup of coffee and sit silently listening for the first calls of the ever early birds. The smell of the rotten meat, mixes with the coffee aroma, this brings a smile to my face. I'm thinking that once, this would have made me throw up. I guess you get used to everything. No taste of bile, just the coffee.. Suddenly: "Cluck, cluck!". That's the sound of a raven! Looking out, I can make out several birds flying around the carrion. Soon I hear a choir of birds. None have yet landed on the ground. While watching them from the windows I try to be as still as possible, I don't want to ruin the day with letting them know I'm here. I know that I should be practically invisible to them but I've heard stories. The stories say that if you look upon a raven with binoculars from a hide, and through the lens, and you meet it's gaze, it can make out the movement of your eye and warn the other birds of what it just saw. I think it through a few times and try to reason, but who knows? There's a grain of truth in every saying. Why wouldn't' there also be in every story? "Wooosh!" The ravens are playful, they try to catch each other in flight. This is a good sign, they could throw a nice show for me today. Suddenly a bird lands, then another, and yet another.. Within a few minutes there are more than twenty ravens gathered on the carrion. I think I can make out a few crows as well, but I'm not sure. It's still very dark. No eagles yet." This is...
...how a morning in the hide can look like. Depending on the weather, the amount of food and
if any people have been about, the birds should eventually arrive. The white-tailed eagles, usually
take their time. They sit in the trees, wary and watching every movement with suspicion. If they have
migrated and are hungry, which sometimes happens, they can land immediately, only thinking about filling
up their empty bellies. Once, an eagle arrived that had apparently migrated from far away. It was apparent
from the beginning that it was tired. It just sat there on the ground, not eating. Sometime just before dusk arrived it took a few bites.
We exited the hide but the eagle didn't take off, it just sat there. Apparently too
tired to care. We thought it was hurt. When we tried to approach it, it ran into to the forest. Too tired to take to it's wings.
I didn't know then that this was the case, it became clear to me much later. Had I known, I'd let it
rest.
Time to thinkIt takes approximately one hour for a white-tailed eagle to make a decision. If it lands in a tree beside the carrion, within the hour it will or will not fly down to eat. It usually , however, does not stay in the tree but takes off elsewhere if it decides otherwise. Many a times I have wondered what they think about. Life isn't easy enough to just sit around and do nothing? Then again, it might be a such a day for that bird. A life-depending for another. White-tailed eagles are philosophical beings in that sense. Not because they might actually be thinking about anything, but the way they behave in my eyes. On the contrary from the golden eagle, it's not action and aggression all the time. They radiate a sense of harmony when they sit there in their trees, watching. When observing them, I relax. I stop and breath, and I just know that life is not always as it seems. There is a beauty to the ways of nature which expresses itself in many forms. Each is an experience in itself. This is just one form. The moments of peace can suddenly change though. In a flash an eagle can swoosh down and try to land on the back of another! There is a few seconds of intense fighting. Claws are being used to get a hold of the other. The mighty wings are being used as bats to hit one another. After these sudden outbreaks, one of the birds usually take to the trees, or sit next by the other eating birds. As seen elsewhere in the animal kingdom, there is also a hierarchy of sort within species of these predators.Other visitors
Ravens can be seen throughout the day on the carrion. The same goes for crows and magpies. Sometimes
other birds can show up too. Tits and woodpeckers appreciate the fat, the fox doesn't say no to a piece
of meat. Badgers, lynx and even bears can stop by! Of course we haven't ever seen a bear, but we
have serious reason to believe that some have visited. Once in our time, a whole corpse of a pig just disappeared during the night. Now, there's only
two possible candidates who can disappear with a 50kg pig. Candidate NR.1 is some human. Our carrion is positioned in the middle of nowhere with land
owned by the forestry of Finland. They, as well as all nearby neighbours, are friendly towards the carrion. Hunters especially appreciate it because they can bring us the leftovers.
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Simply put: no one has any reason to steal rotten meat from the carrion! Therefor the most probable candidate is the bear. Bears are seen occasionally
in the southern parts of Finland. So it's far from an impossibility. The former bird feeders has told me a similar story: Once a large corpse of a pig just
suddenly disappeared. Both cases happened late in autumn which makes it even more probable.