CHAPTER THIRTEEN: PREDATOR AND PREY

Stuart and Margalo were together. It was midday and the two were resting on the roof of a pavilion at Central Park. Stuart was munching on a bag of chips. He'd given the eagle some, but she was still hungry

Rrrrrrrrghhhh! Grrrrrg! Her gizzard growled. "I'm afraid I need something more filling," she sighed as she ate another potato chip.

"These can be filling, if you eat enough."

She searched around with her sharp eyes. As she looked in the direction of a tree, she spotted a squirrel heading to a tree, looking to retrieve some of her stored stash of acorns and nuts. Lunch!

As she spread her wings to take flight, Stuart, not wanting to be left on the roof, quickly grabbed ahold of her talons. He clung tightly to her as she took to the air.

"Stuart, I was going to come back for you. Now, I'm afraid, you'll have to come along for the ride," she sighed.

A moment later, she had the squirrel squirming in her grasp. "Afternoon. I don't suppose it's going to be a good afternoon for you, I'm afraid."

"A mouse and a squirrel? Somebody's really hungry!" The squirrel remarked.

"Stuart here is my friend."

"Mouse, if you're friends with her, tell her not to do it!" The squirrel pleaded with Stuart.

Stuart felt conflicted. He didn't want the squirrel to die but he also knew that birds needed to eat. "Well, I, I, er, I'm sorry."

Margalo deposited Stuart safely in the tree and then flew up with the squirrel until she was at least two dozen feet in the air, positioned above a large rock. "I suggest that you close your eyes," she said to the squirrel.

"Don't do it!" the squirrel shrieked.

The bald eagle released her grip. Rather than shutting her eyes as instructed, however, the squirrel kept her eyes open and screamed all the way down, finally going silent upon impact.

Stuart averted his eyes from the carnage. Thus far, he'd avoided seeing Margalo hunt and feed, but he supposed it was something he'd need to learn to tolerate, if he could.

He could hear the eagle ripping the squirrel into bite-sized bits and gulping them down. When Margalo was done eating, she returned to the mouse. "You can look now. It's over." she said.

He opened his eyes and saw no trace of the squirrel, save some blood on Margalo's beak and talons and the a small distended bulge in the eagle's throat in the region of her crop, which hadn't been there a moment earlier.

"That, that was unsettling!"

"I told her to close her eyes. She wouldn't listen.'

"Charlene! Charlene! Where are you? I heard you scream!". The mouse and eagle looked down and saw, with a heavy heart, a male squirrel. It was clear to both of them that the slain squirrel had been his mate.

"Ug, she was married!" Margalo groaned. 'Might as well reunite them.".

Stuart looked away as Margalo dove at the squirrel. There was no cry of alarm, only the sudden silence of the squirrel. When Margalo told him that it was safe to open his eyes, her talons and beak were covered in even more blood and the bulge in her crop was even larger.

"I hope to God that they didn't have children too."

"It might stink, tearing families apart."

'That's why I don't ask them anything about themselves when I hunt. I know that most prey have family. But it would break my heart to pieces to know of all of those I'm hurting by getting a meal."

"I'll get us some dinner. That way you don't have to kill again today," the mouse offered. "Something better than potato chips."

"Thank you for the offer, but this two-for-one meal deal will satiate meal for a while and take some time to digest. I may not be hungry for dinner."

"I suppose that, since I'm your friend, I'll just have to get used to this hunting thing. And get you some meals and save some lives."

"That would be nice."

Stuart and Margalo stayed together till evening. The mouse was a bit unnerved when the eagle spat up two pellets of squirrel fur. He was glad that the two hadn't suffered but still saddened by what eagles needed to do to feed. "Why does your body do that?" he asked.

"I'm guessing God made it that way so that we don't have all that fur coming out the vent. Would really make peeooping uncomfortable."

"Yeah, it would."

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat but I have a flock meeting that I need to attend."

"See you tomorrow."