Eagle72 - A day in the cottage

I drive in on the small forest road and park my car on the old timber storing place as usual. It is easy to walk, when the ground is frozen and it is still very little snow. Earlier this winter the brook was overfull and I had to walk to the knees in the water to come to the feeding place. I load the sleigh with two pigs. They weigh about 80 kilos, but the sleigh goes easy on the frozen ground. It is pitch-dark and the head lamp is needed.

It has been very cold for a long time and all the meat is deep frozen. In spit of that, the feeding place is quite empty. I unload the pigs and use the axe to make it easier for the eagles to eat the meat.

Indoors in the little cottage, I unpack my things to make everything ready for the next morning, when the eagles come. Then I pull out my sleeping bag, go to bed and fall asleep. Oh well, the sleep is only so-so. The floor is very hard and I am, maybe, to old for such things.

The ravens wake me up just before eight o'clock in the morning. They are always the first individuals on place and it is not until they have come, that the eagle will turn up. I make a fire in the stove and not long after the heat is coming. Then the first eagles have come. It is an adult golden eagle eating from one of the pigs and an adult white-tailed eagle sitting in one of the trees we have "planted" close to the feeding place. The golden eagle eats for almost an hour. During that time, three younger golden eagles turn up but the old one don't allow them to eat. They are one juvenile eagle (born in 1996), one second winterer and the last one shows up for just a second and I am not able to clearly identify it. Al the time the white-tailed eagle is close to the feeding place, but without eating anything. That is the usual behavior for the white-tailed eagles. They are much less aggressive than the golden eagles. At nine o'clock, when the old golden eagle leaves, about 50 ravens enter the pigs. The young golden eagle from early in the morning eats a little bit and the white-tailed eagle find a pice of meat and flies up in a tree, where he drops the food. I really mean he, because of the small size, I can se that it is a male eagle. He is one of the none colored ones. After ten o'clock the ravens decrease and in the middle of the day, the feeding place is empty.
That is a typical behavior the last years. Earlier, there could be eagles on the feeding place the whole day, but nowadays they show up early in the morning and late in the afternoon. The number of eagles seems to have decreased the last years, maybe because of a timber felling close to the feeding place a couple of years ago. 

Instead of looking for birds, I fix some coffee on the stove and pick up my papers and books. When I have had enough of my bird magazines and other "useful" literature, I bring "The Ice House" of Minette Walters instead, a really good book of a really good author. From time to time I look up and check the feeding place. There is no chance at all to miss anything, because the ravens are very noisy.

At two o'clock in the afternoon the white-tailed eagle is back, still very careful and mostly sitting in a tree or walking on the ground in the neighborhood. At tree o'clock, the young golden eagle come and eats for 40 minutes. Finally, when it is almost dark, the whit-tailed eagle eats. Only for a short while, but he eats. 

Just before four o'clock, the place is empty and I pack my things and leave the cottage. The heater has burn the whole day and it is quite warm and nice indoors.
When I come out it feels cold and I walk to the place where the eagles eat. I can see that the pigs from yesterday, has been much smaller during the day and I use my axe to make it easier for the birds to eat the rest.
I find the car where I left it and it starts as it should. Soon I am home again where Vanja waits with a kiss and stockfish. Then it is New Year's Eve in front of the TV, but this is another history.