Subject: Eagles
Date: Jan 22 19:04:32 2000
From: Eugene Kridler - ekridler at olympus.net


I forget who told me this, but not too long ago they witnessed an eagle
nail a cormorant in the water. He couldn't fly with his prey but managed
to scull himself with his wings to shore still holding on to the
cormorant.

When I was the refuge manager of the McNary N.W.R. in l954-1955, one of
the units I had was the Cold Springs N.W.Refuge. There were a lot of
tall cottonwoods around the reservoir, and in the winter there were
quite a few Bald and Golden Eagles using them as perches. There was
roughly 250,000 Mallards using the reservoir. Every now and then one of
eagles, both Bald and Golden, would fly over the ducks searching for
those crippled by hunters. The ducks would really scatter, but now and
then a cripple who couldn't fly or dive would be nailed by eagles. They
are opportunists.

Gene Kridler
ekridler at olympus.net