Eagle vs. cow: Deroche resident captures photos of big bird's cattle battle

An eagle and a cow do battle in Deroche.

After an eagle scooped one of her prized hens, a Deroche woman captured photos of the neighbour's cows fighting with the raptor — though probably not in defence of the chickens.Submitted / Emilie Henderson

An eagle hungry for chicken found itself beefing with a local cow earlier this week.

Emilie Henderson of Deroche, just east of Mission, snapped the pictures after an eagle swooped down to snatch one of her hens on Tuesday.

“All my chickens were kind of squawking and making a racket,” she said, ”and I had been giving my kids a bath at the time so I couldn’t see what was going on.”

When she finally stepped outside, she startled the invading eagle, who flew out of the chicken pen with a hen in its talons.

Rather than try to defend her birds, Henderson broke out her camera.  

“Well, the chicken’s probably already dead, but at least I can try to get some cool pictures,” she said, explaining her thought process.

An eagle and a cow do battle in Deroche.Submitted / Emilie Henderson

While she had little interest in going after the eagle, the same could not be said for her neighbour’s cows, who were drawn to the commotion. 

“One cow came after it right away and chased (the eagle) across the field, and then went behind it and chased it back towards the other cows,” she said.

An eagle and a cow do battle in Deroche.Submitted / Emilie Henderson

The battle was a real barn-burner.

Henderson said that while the photos may make it look like the cow was protecting the chickens, that’s probably not the case.   

“There’s nothing like that. It piqued their interest. It was probably just shits and giggles, chasing the birds,” she said.

Either way, the cow’s half-hearted rescue was unsuccessful and the eagle made off with one of Henderson’s hens.

An eagle and a cow do battle in Deroche.Submitted / Emilie Henderson

She isn’t overly troubled by the loss, however. Henderson has at least 40 chickens, photos of which can be seen at her Facebook page, Combs and Hackles.   

That said, the eagle definitely went for the good stuff.

“She wasn’t a cheap bird. I’ve been offered a hundred bucks for her and turned it down,” Henderson said. 

hmooney@postmedia.com

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