Hi Tim. Isn't that great when you can witness stuff like that? I love seeing
nature in action. The only time I witnessed thieving from harriers was a
couple of winters ago. For several weeks, an immature grey morph Gyrfalcon
was hanging around the Boundary Bay area south of Vancouver, Canada, and
this bird developed a "modus operandi" for stealing from harriers. It would
blast along very low over the tall grass until it flushed a harrier and then
it would give chase. If it became apparent that the harrier had nothing, the
Gyr would give up the chase right away. But if the harrier had something, it
would invariably be only a matter of seconds before the harrier dropped it's
prey, whereupon the Gyr would scoop it up and proceed to the nearest log to
devour it's lunch. At least three separate parties of observers reported
this behaviour over about a three week period so it was apparently a habit
for this bird. The thing that surprised me was that this whole thing was
going on within spitting distance of billions of gulls, ducks, Dunlin, etc.
The reason the Boundary Bay foreshore is so popular with falcons, especially
in winter, is that it is just teeming with prey. Despite this abundance,
this particular Gyr, probably to the acute disappointment of it's parents,
seemed to prefer the life of a brigand.
Regards,
Daniel Bastaja
Maple Ridge, Canada
e-mail: birdingfaqs at hotmail.com






>From: "Tim O'Brien" <kertim7179 at centurytel.net>
>Reply-To: "Tim O'Brien" <kertim7179 at centurytel.net>
>To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
>Subject: bald eagle steals a prize
>Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2003 21:41:45 -0800
>
>Greetings Tweets,
>
>Today, I saw something that quite surprised me. I was birding along the
>Wenzel Slough Rd., west of the twin silos near the area where the road
>floods, when I'm observed a female Northern Harrier on a post. After
>watching the harrier for a little while, it took off and coursed over the
>field in search of prey. It didn't take long for the harrier to find
>something, she proceeded to swoop up and hover for a few seconds and then
>dive down into the grass. The harrier came back up with a small mammal in
>its talons. She flew a short distance away and landed back into the tall
>grass to devour her catch.
>
>All this time, I had been ignoring a mature Bald Eagle that was perched in
>a tall spruce tree that I had spotted before the harrier. Suddenly, while
>my binoculars were focused on the tall grass where the harrier had landed,
>the Bald Eagle swooped in and dropped right in on the harrier. I wasn't
>paying attention when the eagle flew in, but on its way it had flushed
>several ducks and one Great Blue Heron out of a watery area of the field
>which filled the air with the sounds of panic. The harrier came flying up
>out of the grass empty handed. About 30 seconds later, the eagle arose
>from the grass with the harrier's prey in its talons. The eagle flew right
>back up to the same spot on the spruce tree where I had first spotted it.
>The harrier flew off to another post.
>
>Northern Harriers are quite common in this area, as are the Bald Eagles.
>However, I have never seen an eagle steal another raptor's prey. There is
>a large nest in this same area which I would assume is an eagle's nest
>based on its location about half way up the tree. After I moved on, I did
>see another Bald Eagle with the original one in the same spruce tree.
>Would this be an example of territorial behavior on the part of the eagles
>or just the eagle being the dominant species? Just wondering if anyone
>else has seen something like this before.
>
>Tim O'Brien
>Elma, WA
>mailto: kertim7179 at centurytel.net
>


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