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The Wedge Tail Eagle
The station manager at the time was Arnold DeGoumois and on this day we were checking the Border fence and patching where necessary.
Wedge Tailed Eagles were considered a pest, more so during lambing season as they would take new born lambs. This was lambing season.
While we were checking the fence a Wedge Tail Eagle was spotted in a nearby tree so Arnold grabbed the rifle out of the 4wd to shoot it. Just as he fired at the bird, it left the safety of the tree it was in but not quite in time. The bullet still found it's mark but the bird was not killed. Seriously injured it flew around in circles and upable to gain any height it eventual came down to earth. I though when it hit the ground that the bird was dead and I raced over and grabbed it by a wing and it tried to take off again. All the time I was hanging on tight to it and this huge bird with it's six foot wings at full span began to turn me around in circles. I was not game to let it go in case it tried to attack me.
As I am going around and around in circles, I hear the sound of a gunshot and I fell backwards to the ground. I had no idea what had happened and was almost in a state of shock. The bird was dead. It turned out that while I was being turned around by the bird, Arnold had kept the rifle trained on it and when he was able to get a clear shot, he killed the bird.
The only downside to this event at the time was Arnold's pride was hurt in having to use two bullets.
Wedge Tail Eagle
The Wedge-tailed Eagle or Eaglehawk (Aquila audax) is the largest raptor in Australia and is the most common of all the world's large eagles. It has long, fairly broad wings, fully feathered legs, and an unmistakable wedge-shaped tail. Because of both its tail and its size, it is one of the largest birds of prey in the world. It can be identified at a glance as a "Wedgie" even by the non-expert.
The Wedge-tailed Eagle is one of twelve species of large predominantly dark-coloured eagles in the genus Aquila found worldwide; a large brown bird of prey, it has a wingspan averaging over 2.5 m (8.3 ft) and an average length of around 1.2 m (4 ft). Latest research indicates it forms a worldwide superspecies with Verreaux's Eagle, Gurney's Eagle and the Golden Eagle
Wedge Tail Eagle
This photo shows the size of the Wedge Tail in comparison to it's prey, a Kangaroo.
Created on 09/10/2008 12:43 AM by Rod
Updated on 09/10/2008 12:47 AM by Rod
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