01/23/09 The eagle returns

An old friend dropped in today. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back in one minute to tell you about him. Every year we look forward to a visit from along time acquaintance. We weren't disappointed this year, but we were a little surprised. The annual guest is a bald eagle that drops in about the first ten days of February and stays about two to three weeks then moves on to other stops. This year "Baldy Bill" came around about three weeks early. Maybe he picked up a favorable tail wind or just got bored and decided to start his travels just a little early to beat whatever rush a bald eagle might encounter. We don't see him everyday of his visit, but he's fun to watch as he sits in one of his two special trees and supervises as we feed the cows. I would be a little more concerned if we were getting young lambs instead of calves since he could probably carry off a lamb. Environmentalists and some of the "way out there" conservation groups think cattle producers and agriculture in general is a real detriment to eagles or any kind of wildlife. They don't understand we have lived with them for decades, provide shelter and feed for them and just plain enjoy watching them, except when they bring destruction to our animals or property. At that time control measures must be taken since we can't operate with any extra losses. Baldy Bill must figure we have a pretty good place to hang out, because about two days after his arrival a young eagle showed up we had never seen before. Baldy must have passed the word along to a teenage friend. I'm Jeff Keane.