Dear Readers,

You think you have had a hard time this winter?

Sure, we have shoveled and shoveled, and shoveled some more. But, let’s face it, most of us are able to get to a grocery store for bread and milk and the stuff to whip up a tempting batch of mac and cheese.

Not so, our feathered friends.

Each week, the readers of the Boothbay Register and Wiscasset Newspaper are treated to one of the best birding columns in New England, penned by experts Jeff and Allison Wells.

But, on the shores of Linekin Bay, veteran lobsterman Ralph Carter has a decidedly different birding tale.

Carter says this winter has been so tough that even the gulls have had trouble finding anything to eat.

“They can't even find mussels, and some of them are eating each other,” he said.

On most days, Carter says he feeds about 40 or so gulls.

No bird seed or fish guts for them. Carter flings them an assortment of day-old donuts he begs from Hang Nguyen at Boothbay Harbor's Baker's Way coffee shop, home to world-famous apple fritters.

It was just last week when he said he heard a terrible ruckus down on his snow-covered dock.

“Something big was down there flapping its wings and hopping around a lobster trap. I went down to look, and it was a bald eagle,” he said.

What he really saw was an avian struggle for survival.

A huge bald eagle was trying to grab (and eat) a crow, which had taken refuge inside one of Carter's lobster traps.

“The eagle was screaming as he flapped his wings and reached through the spacer (the little opening that lets little lobsters escape), trying to capture the crow.

The spacer opening was too small to allow the eagle to extend his talons and set them into the black bird's head. He was just sort of hanging on to the bird, but the opening was also too small to let him pull the crow out.

As Carter tells it, outside the trap, the eagle was screaming and flapping, while inside, the crow was cawing and flapping.

Now, Carter has been around wildlife most of his life, and knew better than to rush down to confront a mature bald eagle, especially one that was hungry and excited. But, after a few minutes, he walked down to the dock anyway. And the eagle glared at him, looked at the crow, and flew away.

After the larger raptor left, the exhausted crow relaxed, fell over and played dead. Carter reached in and pulled it out and walked it up to the house where he and his wife, Mildred, carefully placed it on a cover inside a pet carrier to let it rest and get warm.

“Sometimes they play dead,” he said.

After a couple of hours, it recovered and stood up, so Mildred fed it.

What do you feed a crow to help it get over the trauma caused by a very persistent, and very hungry, bald eagle?

Donuts.

“I fed it some donuts. It didn't like the chocolate donuts, but seemed to like the plain cake ones,” Mildred said.

After the crow had a snack, it seemed lively enough, so Ralph took it outside and it flew up into the sky.

Almost immediately, about eight other crows swooped around it.

“They seemed to be welcoming him back,” he said.

As Mother Nature hammers us with snow after snow, it is good to know that some of our friends and neighbors are helping our feathered friends.

It is also good to know that our neighbors also help our less fortunate human friends by donating to and staffing the community food bank.

And now for a special weather note to all: Hang in there, friends.

Spring is scheduled to arrive the afternoon of Friday, March 20.