Stupid national bird.

Well we now have two ducks we’ll call “Lucky”.  I was working away in the veggies and the geese sounded like someone was trying to pluck them, one feather at a time.  I had been keeping an eye on the sky as it’s “Eagle Season” here.  We usually loose one or two ducks to the eagles each year and had been lucky so far this year.  Last year Farmer J was able to break up a bit of a squabble between two eagles over one of our runner ducks.  She lived, and was dubbed “Lucky”.  Well the other day here mom had a similar run in.  I saw the white head pop up with a bunch of feathers and thought it was too late.  In fact when I did blow through the gate into the duck/chicken run it was to see the eagle beating a hasty retreate empty clawed.

Poor “momma duck” was quacking and flapping up the hill with blood all over her breast, a dragging wing and a really bad limp.  We let her settle down in the alders in the run and left her alone for the rest of the day.  I figured it would be just a matter of time for her to bleed out, and expire, but no, here we are a couple of days later and all she has to show for her brush with the feds is a bit of a limp.  Egg production did take about as long to come back around though….  I wonder if I can bill the boys in Washington DC for that?

Here she is, resting, post battle.  No blood visible when she sat down.