The Wedge Tailed Eagle Poem by Francis Duggan

High above the brown paddock on a calm and windless day
The huge dark brown bird with wedge tail is eyeing the landscape for prey
He kills living creatures and scavenges on the dead
The great wedge tailed eagle Aussie born and bred.

The great feathered emperors of the southern sky
The landscape below them is bare, brown and dry
And for prey scanning the landscape they hover and fly
The huge and airborne hunters with death in their cry.

They nest in remote places and their nests few do see
A huge structure of sticks lined with green leaves high or low on a tree
They lay two to three pale eggs blotched purply brown
The birds never seen in the parks of the Town.

From human habitation their safe distance they keep
And the farmers do not like them they say they kill sheep
And despite persecution as a species they thrive
And as well as eating carrion of course they must kill to survive.