By Pierre Ratte
“Look! It’s a two-eagle barn!” That’s what Dick said to Jim after passing an old barn and estimating the width of its central opening in Golden Eagle wingspans.
Then Jim, an ever-quiet, lanky, silver-haired cattleman with a steel grip handshake, offered up: “Yeah, looks like it. Don’t think it’s a two-and-a-half.” And so it would go, up and down the San Joaquin Valley, measuring old barns’ central openings, and only old wooden barns, by Golden Eagle wingspans. Asked the widest he’d seen, Dick replied: “A five-eagle, I reckon. Right, Jim?” Jim: “Never seen a six.” And then there would be silence for however long it took to get to the next farm inspection.
This old barn reminded me of pleasant times with Dick and Jim. Wish they were around to “discuss” the diameter of this barn-door opening on the east side of Westside Road, north of Felta. Seems like a little ol’ one-eagle, if that. Nonetheless, it’s beautiful.
Fun Facts: Golden Eagle wingspans are 6-8 feet. Western range is from Mexico to Alaska. A solitary bird, it makes appearances in Sonoma County but tends to nest at higher elevations in steep terrain. Bald Eagles nest here and can be seen reasonably often.
Birds’ common names generally start with capital letters, to distinguish between a species name and a description. Scientific names have a capitalized first and non-capitalized second name. The scientific names for Golden and Bald Eagles are: Aquila chrysaetos and Haliaeetus leucocephalus, respectively. Both were named by Linnaeus in the mid-1700s.
Maximum airspeed of a Golden Eagle is reportedly 200 mph; a Bald Eagle about 100 mph; a Peregrine Falcon about 240 mph.
Richard Glen “Dick” Jones and J. T. “Jim” Elings had formidable careers in agricultural science and management. Dick received a Master of Animal Science degree from UC Davis, helped advise sheep herders in the Middle East through USAID, and was General Manager of the California Livestock Marketing Association. Jim was a renowned cattleman and advisor, publishing approximately 100 articles on livestock breeding and genetics.
Dick and Jim teamed up to form Agricultural Industries, Inc. and developed clients like Stanford University, Unocal and Anheuser-Busch. Roadtripping agricultural lands with them was a pleasure.
