Last summer I watched a Northern Harrier chase a Belted Kingfisher across
the Nisqually Delta to the boat launch on McAllister Creek. This took about
10 minutes and the whole time a Bald Eagle shadowed the hunt. The Harrier
would dive down at the Kingfisher who would throw himself flat on the beach
or water. Kingfisher than would fly up and dash another 20 or 30 feet before
the Harrier dove at him again. When the exhausted Kingfisher finally makes
it to the shore and lands in some weeds a Great Blue Herron goes after him.
This poor guy could not win for nothing. The Kingfisher then flew up into
some trees to live another day. The Harrier went back toward the dikes and
the Eagle flew away.


Glenn
Tacoma, Wa
glenn.hansen at usa.net


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim O'Brien" <kertim7179 at centurytel.net>
To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Saturday, February 15, 2003 9:41 PM
Subject: bald eagle steals a prize


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