Sunday Bart Whelton and I headed west onto the plains. The Reardan/Davenport
area has been very poor this winter for birds, and we went on to Bagdad Road
south of Grand Coulee. Seven miles north of Hartline we saw a Prairie Falcon,
then almost immediately a Gyrfalcon. It was good for a comparison of the form
and flight style of these close relatives; the power of the Gyr was never more
apparent.

South of Dry Falls at Blue Lake an adult Bald Eagle came out of a tree and
started harrassing an isolated coot. I immediately thought of last year's
thread on Tweeters about what I remembered as "drowning" of prey by eagles.
Sure enough, the eagle kept making passes at the coot. Initially the coot
would dive and stay down for awhile, and a couple of times the eagle nearly
timed its return trip just right to snatch the reemerging coot. Then the coot
started diving only when the eagle approached it. The eagle began moving more
slowly and gliding in on the coot just above the water. We thought the coot
was winning as it spent more and more time on the surface. But we were dead
wrong. One time the coot never dove at all as the eagle passed, and a couple
of passes later it was easily snatched. The whole hunt took about two
minutes, we guessed.

In retrospect we realized how exhausted the coot must have been from its
efforts, and the end result seemed inevitable. I'm guessing this is a fairly
common tactic of Bald Eagles, but don't know. I've heard that coots are a
favorite food, and I'm wondering if they are preferred because they are easier
to catch than other waterfowl. A weak flier would be more reluctant to take
flight. I'm also assuming the lack of webbing on the feet means coots have to
expend considerably more energy to stay underwater. Any comments from you
folks who have been around Bald Eagles a lot?

Mark Houston
Spokane