Eagle Goes After Ornamental Chicken. There are several farms in Illahee and this one is unique in many ways, including how they have learned to live with the wildlife.
..............we've been having some Eagle problems. However they were here before us so they might have been E-mailing (that's Eagle-mail) to each other about humans getting in the way of their way of life over the years! They probably also E-mail that Honeyhill Farm is easy pickins.
We are fairly certain that an eagle got our male Guinea rooster in the pasture 3 days ago...........only tons of feathers left, and coyotes can't get into the pasture because of the hot fence we have around the bottom of the fencing.
The day after that I heard some banging noises on the front porch.........and ran to look. There was an eagle trying to steal a fake rooster that I use for decoration. It is a realistic, life size plastic/fake with chicken feathers glued all over it. There were several crows dive bombing the eagle. I chased it off and put the fake rooster back on her "perch." Now they'll probably E-mail that some of Honeyhill's chickens are really tough!!
At this point I'm worried about our mini dachshund and my cats. We still have 4 chickens left but I'm sure they are plenty tender. I guess that's the price we pay for living in their territory.
We are fairly certain that an eagle got our male Guinea rooster in the pasture 3 days ago...........only tons of feathers left, and coyotes can't get into the pasture because of the hot fence we have around the bottom of the fencing.
The day after that I heard some banging noises on the front porch.........and ran to look. There was an eagle trying to steal a fake rooster that I use for decoration. It is a realistic, life size plastic/fake with chicken feathers glued all over it. There were several crows dive bombing the eagle. I chased it off and put the fake rooster back on her "perch." Now they'll probably E-mail that some of Honeyhill's chickens are really tough!!
At this point I'm worried about our mini dachshund and my cats. We still have 4 chickens left but I'm sure they are plenty tender. I guess that's the price we pay for living in their territory.
Illahee Eagle With Fish. We were talking with an Illahee waterfront resident who said she snapped of photo just after an eagle had gotten a fish from the bay. She gave us permission to send out her photo, which is attached.
Sunflower Sea Star. Sea stars, or star fish, can come in many different species and colors. We found a number of small sunflower sea stars at Schutt's Point on Monday including the bright orange one in the photo. Some interesting facts about sunflower sea stars: it is the largest and fastest sea star in Puget Sound, it can grow to 3 feet in diameter and can mover over 3 feet per minute. It eats nearly everything, including clams, crabs, snails, sea cucumbers, urchins, and other sea stars. They have an interesting water-vascular system, or hydraulic system, that allows them to move by moving water in and out of small tube feet in each of their arms.
Low Tides & Clam Digging Success. We also came across a father and son digging for geoducks and they had mistakenly dug a horse clam. We asked if we could lay the horse clam next to a goeduck so we could take a picture to show the difference between the two big clams. The horse clam is on the left and the geoduck is on the right.
Midshipman Fish. Last year we gave a report on midshipman fish and decided to check under a rock to see if there would be a midshipman fish and some eggs. We found two fish under the rock along with some eggs. The male midshipman fish digs out the hole under the rock and then emits a croaking noise to entice female fish to come in and lay her eggs, which are deposited on the underside of the rock. Sometimes there will be many eggs of different colors under a rock, indicating the male has been successful in attracting several females. The second photo gives a better picture of what these fish look like. They are nocturnal so they aren't likely to be caught by those fishing during the day.Jim Aho
