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![\"\"](\"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Crows3.jpg\")
<\/a>Crows on the carcass
December 29, 2019<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>17 March, 2020: First Spring visitor was a mature Bald Eagle.<\/p><\/div>\n
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<\/a>17 March: After surveying the scene, he started to open up the chest cavity to get at the lungs and heart.<\/p><\/div>\n
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<\/a>18 March: A Red Tailed Hawk joins the dining club.<\/p><\/div>\n
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<\/a>21 March: The Red Tailed Hawk continued feeding in the chest cavity.<\/p><\/div>\n
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<\/a>22 March: The surprise of this whole experiment was the appearance of a Red Shouldered Hawk on the carcass. This is a Threatened Species in Wisconsin. A WDNR worker told me that it was quite unusual to see this species at carrion.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>29 March: The Bald Eagle returns and enlarges the hole to the chest organs.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>3 April: A late spring snowfall doesn’t keep the Bald Eagle from returning. That’s a really large bird, I’d say.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>7 April: Vultures appear. Again, the chest cavity is the preferred dining site.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>April 8: \u00a0 A curious deer<\/p><\/div>\n
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<\/a>29 April: Vultures continue feeding through the month. Note the grass greening.<\/p><\/div>\n
May 10: Finally–a coyote appears. I was hoping for a bear, but that was a no-show.<\/p><\/div>\n May 11 The coyotes worked on the hind quarters (the “thighs” of the deer), and they even dragged the carcass noticeably to the upper right of the frame.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Guest Posting by Dean Hansen. Dean has contributed to Old Naturalist over the years. I noticed a road-killed deer near my land just east into Wisconsin from my home in Stillwater.\u00a0 I registered the\u00a0deer online and dragged it onto my … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>