Subject: kleptoparasitism
Date: Feb 17 09:58:37 2003
From: don mcvay - dmcvay at cmc.net


While kayaking along the east shore of Jones Island I observed a Bald Eagle
dive into a tidal rip about 100 meters offshore. The eagle came up with a
very large salmon. The salmon was flapping back and forth and the eagle
had trouble gaining altitude. At about 25 meters altitude a trio of
Glaucous-winged Gulls started following the eagle and then began dive
bombing the eagle. The eagle lost altitude and finally dropped the salmon
and then rapidly gained altitude and disappeared in the distance. The
gulls immediately landed where the salmon had fallen and started to dive
under trying to recover the salmon. Apparently the salmon was still
healthy enough to avoid the gulls, since they soon gave up and flew away.
I paddled over to the area where the salmon had fallen hoping to have
better luck in recovering the fish than the gulls, but with no better
results. Obviously, in this case, this human would not be a very good
kleptoparasite!

Don McVay
Deer Harbor
dmcvay at cmc.net