Kill 'em and eat 'em! Thanks Luis flores!

A Pilot's Story - Not what you would think


May 30, 2010



Kill 'em and Eat 'em.



This narrative came from a gent who runs a 2000-acre corn farm up around

Barron , WI, not far from Oshkosh . He used to fly F-4Es and F-16s for the

Guard and participated in the first Gulf War.





I went out to plant corn for a bit to finish a field before tomorrow morning

and witnessed The Great Battle . A golden eagle - big, with about a

six-foot wingspan - flew right in front of the tractor. It was being chased

by three crows that were continually dive bombing it and pecking at it. The

crows do this because the eagles rob their nests when they find them.







At any rate, the eagle banked hard right in one evasive maneuver, then

landed in the field about 100 feet from the tractor. This eagle stood about

3 feet tall. The crows all landed too. They took up positions around the

eagle at 120 degrees apart, but kept their distance at about 20 feet from

the big bird. The eagle would take a couple steps towards one of the crows

and they'd hop backwards and forward to keep their distance. Then the

reinforcement showed up.







I happened to spot the eagle's mate hurtling down out of the sky at what

appeared to be approximately Mach 1.5. Just before impact the eagle on the

ground took flight, (obviously a coordinated tactic; probably pre-briefed)

and the three crows which were watching the grounded eagle, also took flight

thinking they were going to get in some more pecking on the big bird.







The first crow being targeted by the diving eagle never stood a snowball's

chance in hell. There was a mid-air explosion of black feathers and that

crow was done. The diving eagle then banked hard left in what had to be a 9G

climbing turn, using the energy it had accumulated in the dive, and hit crow

#2 less than two seconds later. Another crow dead.







The grounded eagle, which was now airborne and had an altitude advantage on

the remaining crow, which was streaking eastward in full burner, made a

short dive, then banked hard right when the escaping crow tried to evade the

hit. It didn't work - crow #3 bit the dust at about 20 feet AGL.







This aerial battle was better than any air show I've been to, including the

war birds show at Oshkosh . The two eagles ripped the crows apart and ate

them on the ground, and as I got closer and closer working my way across the

field, I passed within 20 feet of one of them as it ate its catch. It

stopped and looked at me as I went by and you could see in the look of that

bird that it knew who's Boss Of The Sky. What a beautiful bird!







I loved it. Not only did they kill their enemy, they ate them. This is one

of the best Fighter Pilot stories I've seen in a long time... There are no

noble wars -- Only noble warriors.