Eagles part of the cleanup crew
PHOTOS BY GARRY BRANDENBURG — A deer, most likely severely injured by a recent vehicle strike on Highway 330 near Timmons Grove, died in the shallow waters of the Iowa River. Mother Nature does not like to waste things, so she enabled her clean up crew, in this case Bald Eagles and Crows, to pick the carcass clean of all muscle tissue. While these images show only one eagle, an immature bird, there were at least eight other eagles perched in nearby trees or sand bar areas. All will wait their turn to pick away at the carcass. Crows will have to wait even longer until the eagles are finished. The contrast in size between an eagle and a crow is quite evident in the mirror-like reflective smooth water.
Some Bald Eagles may be year round residents. Additional eagles have started to arrive, some to spend the winter with us, and others to gather in larger flocks at known hot-spots. Those special places where eagles may be viewed this fall and winter will be the outflow areas
below the river dams at Lake Red Rock, Saylorville, and Coralville.
However, any open water lakes or rivers that remain open before hard freezes bring solid ice will suffice to allow eagles to gather as they watch for fish. The Des Moines River in downtown Des Moines will have numerous eagle sightings and some spectacular eagle photographs made by local observers.
Locally, one area that seems to attract eagles is Three Bridges County Park. The river water tumbles over the collapsed limestone rubble of the old mill dam just below the pedestrian bridge.
Wave action over the submerged rocks prevents the water from completely freezing later this coming winter. There will be fish periodically moving in or near the shallow water and a perched eagle in a nearby tree will be quick to attempt capturing it with its strong talons.
I have also periodically observed fish carcasses on the Three Bridges ice. A bit more observation indicated that a river otter had first captured the fish, ate parts of it, and then left the carcass alone and isolated.
Eagles found the fish meal an easy pick. So did the crows once the eagle had finished its course. Mother Nature’s recycling crews took care of business, enabling the meat and tissue from one dead animal to become energy and life for another animal.
Open water at Sand Lake will hold eagles also. The waters in these old quarry pits take a long time to lose their heat as colder weather approaches. The air may be very cold due to weather systems coming and going, but the water is slow to respond.
Yes, over time the water will lose its heat content until finally, on some still morning when air temperatures reach even lower, a skim of ice will form over most of Sand Lake. It will take prolonged very cold air masses to make the ice grow in thickness. Once the ice is in place, eagles must fly toward other places with open water.
Eagles are primarily fish hunters and fish eaters, but they are not fussy. Any dead animal from a deer along the side of a road, or a dead raccoon or opossum, will do quite well. Eagles are part of the cleanup crew as day shift, and owls will take over on the night shift.
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Eagles and many other birds of prey are being counted and surveyed near Grammer Grove. Dedicated bird watchers are busy gathering data now and making counts of anything from turkey vultures, golden and bald eagles, and many other species of hawk or falcon to glide past the Iowa River valley where Grammer Grove is located.
Grammer is about three miles southwest of Liscomb or about five miles northwest of Albion. If you chose to drive to Grammer Grove, do watch the skies for passing raptors, as well as the colorful fall foliage now crunching under your footsteps.
A refreshing fall hike on the trails at Grammer will allow one to see all kinds of wildlife if one is patient and slow, and carefully able to use binoculars to pick apart features of the landscape.
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Pheasant hunters have been putting many miles on their boot leather during the past two weeks. The season opened on Oct. 28. Some success had been accomplished, however, as hunters did indicate that they had to hike many miles and work hard in some tangled cover to finally jump a rooster.
That is the name of the game when hunting upland game birds. Be prepared to put many miles on one’s boot leather to get the job done.
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Speaking of getting the job done, last week the Pheasants Forever banquet for members and guests in Marshall and Tama counties, had a very successful turnout. Three hundred people attended, including families and kids, who were present to participate in fun, games and live and
silent auctions to raise dollars for conservation work projects. The crowd did not disappoint.
This was the 37th Annual Membership Banquet.
“Thank you to everyone for your support and attendance. Our projects include youth outdoor education, scholarships, handicapped hunting, summer camps, seed and tree purchases, habitat plantings and land acquisition,” Luke Engel, President of chapter 54 of PF, said.
Special recognition was made to donors who contributed above and beyond as sponsors. Pheasants Forever as a private conservation group. It has a unique grassroots system for fundraising and project support. Money raised by local PF chapters is theirs to decide how it will be used.
PF funds do not get mired down in a bureaucracy of paper pushers. Since PF’s beginning in 1982, chapters across all states have assisted with 1,771 land acquisitions that equals 225,382 acres. PF and its co-partner Quail Forever puts a priority on acquiring lands for public use. They do so via cooperative partnerships with local, state and federal agencies.
One local Marshall County project is a recipient of PF assistance, along with other partners, to watch Earth work grading this past week at the Mann Wetland Area located south of Albion. The land acquisition took place last year.
Planning between the local Marshall County Conservation Board and the US Fish and Wildlife Service and help from the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation is now taking the project to the boots on the ground level. Shallow ephemeral wetland sites were excavated. Soils from those low areas were carefully dispersed into subtle adjacent higher elevations. With this slight reshaping of the land, the area will be ready when rains return next year. In time, this wetland complex will increase the diversity of habitats and make the area much more wildlife friendly.
This winter, native seeds of native prairie grasses and forbs (flowers) will be frost seeded over the entire floodplain, hopefully after a bit of snow cover is in place. The snow allows the equipment operator to more easily see the area traversed via tractor tracks. A broadcast seeder will disperse the prairie seeds onto the snow surface, and during the winter, these seeds will slowly sink down to the soil surface where spring warmth will germinate the seeds.
A winter of those seeds supposedly inert and just resting in place has other biological things going on. Many prairie seeds need to go through a process called stratification. For viable seeds to germinate later, they need periodic freeze/thaw cycles to help prepare the seed for spring germination.
Frost seeding method is a proven method to get the seeds in place. The stage is being set to make the Mann Wetland complex prosper. That is a good thing.
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Deer hunting by archers is well underway. As of mid week, statewide the deer number as reported show just under 19,000 total for bucks and doe deer. Marshall County deer hunters have recorded 77 animals.
Now is prime time for deer rutting activity. Deer will be moving at any hour of the day or night. If you are a deer hunter, that is a good thing. If you are a motorist, be careful and have special awareness of deer moving across a roadway.
I am an avid archer. I arrowed my first white-tail near Spearfish, S.D. in October, 1966. That was a game changer for me that set the stage for many more successful outdoor adventures with bow and arrow in the USA, Canada and two safaris to South Africa.
To this day, being able to get close to an animal and have it not know it is being observed is a fun and exciting thing to have happen. No, it is not easy.
Yes, it is challenging and fun to accomplish, and in many cases, the animal I am hunting can easily humble me by detecting me, or something not quite right, that tells it to turn away or stay out of sight. I count every hunting foray as a success, and most times I never had to draw my bow, just use my eyes to record another episode of outdoor wonder.
Every time I venture into a natural area, I learn something. I cherish those times and hope to continue to hunt for many years to come. I can recall many past episodes of encounters, close and far away, that were unique settings of time and place to see nature go about its business.
Those special times include having an eagle perch in the top of the tree my stand was in. I have had hawks, falcons and owls fly in a straight line toward me, and then at the last second veer away when they realized I was not a prey animal.
A red-tailed hawk once landed on a branch on the side of the tree I was in while it had no idea I was watching it from a mere six feet away. I remained still and quiet.
As the hawk surveyed its location, I had a close up view of its intricate and beautiful colorful plumage. Finally it turned its head toward me and — surprise — was momentarily investigating me eye-to-eye. It did not take long to fly away.
I have watched fantastic sunrises, and just as beautiful sunsets as warm light permeated cloud bases to paint an awesome picture. I have been in a tree stand during October when the air was warm.
I have hunted in late November when chilling air turned to light rain, and then to light snow, and then to heavy snow, all before official hunting time ended for the evening. I once was in that situation when I spotted a buck deer a fair distance away. I use a grunt call to stop him.
He turned and walked straight toward my tree. When he stopped the next time, I sent an arrow through him. This took place at the Arney Bend Wildlife Area.
My long walk out to get a toboggan from my truck, walk back to get the deer, and now pull the critter through deep snow and out of the forest was an exhausting endeavor, but I had a smile on my face the entire time. I am an avid archer.
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“The value of a trophy is inversely proportional to the ease with which it is obtained.”
— Fred Bear, archer
Garry Brandenburg is the retired director of the Marshall County Conservation Board. He is a graduate of Iowa State University with a BS degree in Fish & Wildlife Biology.
Contact him at:
P.O. Box 96
Albion, IA 50005
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- PHOTOS BY GARRY BRANDENBURG — A deer, most likely severely injured by a recent vehicle strike on Highway 330 near Timmons Grove, died in the shallow waters of the Iowa River. Mother Nature does not like to waste things, so she enabled her clean up crew, in this case Bald Eagles and Crows, to pick the carcass clean of all muscle tissue. While these images show only one eagle, an immature bird, there were at least eight other eagles perched in nearby trees or sand bar areas. All will wait their turn to pick away at the carcass. Crows will have to wait even longer until the eagles are finished. The contrast in size between an eagle and a crow is quite evident in the mirror-like reflective smooth water.
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