In many years of birding I have watched groups of crows harass eagles,
especially as they fly, sometimes as they are perched. The other day at the
Padilla Bay area I once again watched four crows cawwing and flying over and
diving upon an adult bald as the bald flew over the mudflats. As the crows
swooped down the eagle would sort of shudder a bit. Then, to my delight,
with incredible precision, the eagle flipped over just as a crow was diving,
caught the crow in its talons, then righted itself and carried the crow
about 10 wing flaps before dropping it, apparently dead, unto the mud. The
three remaining crows decided to go elsewhere and did so directly.

Another time I watched an adult bald out on the Olympic coast at Sandpoint.
It was hopping on the beach, then poking its bill into the seaweed, tossing
bits of seaweed here and there and generally acting as if totally fooling
around. It called several times doing this, which is how it caught my
attention. It would hop and flap its wings as if taking off, then land again
and toss seaweed some more. One energetic fling sent a bit of seaweed a
good 5-6 feet. It was acting so odd I thought maybe it was sick or
something, it certainly did not seem to be foraging. This show lasted about
3-4 minutes, and may have been going on for longer, then it suddenly jumped
into the air, wheeled sideways and swooped close over a log where a raccoon
had been apparently watching the whole show with a troop of little ones. All
the raccoons made it under cover, just in the nick of time, and the eagle
landed on the log for several minutes while the raccoons cowered under a
root wad, which provided poor cover. I moved a bit and got a good view of
the baby raccoons crawling all over each other trying to hide. The eagle
finally flew off to an offshore rock, perhaps disturbed by me because I lost
my balance and fell off the log I was standing on. I have since pondered
this (the eagles behavior, not falling off a log) and wondered if the whole
thing was an accident or a deliberate ploy. I have never heard or read any
behavioral account like this of an eagle but have read that coyotes and some
other predators sometimes have behaviors like this to enable them to get
closer to potential prey. Or was the eagle just playing and saw the raccoon
and went for it? These are things I think about when lay in bed and can't
sleep.

Rob Sandelin
Sky Valley Environments <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous at msn.com


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