Recycling

Remember the poachers last deer season? The guys who shot the buck in the rump and shoulder after dusk, on our posted property, right next to the boys in the driveway?

Well, Alan found that buck a good while later, injured, full of rot and death, and put him out of the misery the not-so-good hunters inflicted.

He could have called DEC...we had already been in touch with them over the incident..and gotten the animal, which was not edible, picked up and had a new tag issued to him. However, we already had venison enough for winter, and he wanted to mount the antlers, so he kept him.

As suggested by the DEC officers, and as we have done in the past, we put the carcass out for the scavengers. Usually coyotes and crows fill that niche, but sometimes we get Bald Eagles.

The bones, long since picked clean, lie in the thick grass of the field behind the house. I had been thinking maybe I should move them down in the woods for the mice to chew, but hadn't...

Then this morning I thought I saw a turkey out there. Something thick and black and clunky was hunkering down there....I got the binoculars and, no, it was not a turkey, but a Turkey Vulture, picking away. Now there are several. I can't imagine what they are finding to eat, but they seem to be enjoying their bony breakfast.