I have seem a similar technique, but with no obvious smacking. I watched an
adult Eagle dive into a flock of ducks on the Columbia. After each dive,
the duck flock would scatter more until one individual was left. It kept
diving and diving after each eagle dive, but eventually it got tired and the
eagle snatched it off the water. In this case, the bird was probably a
cripple unretrieved during hunting (hey, it happens). This happened in the
middle of the river, and the eagle carried the duck (or coot) all the way to
shore. I was amazed at the power of the bird to carry such heavy prey so
far. Definitely heavier than a fish I would imagine.

Jeff Kozma
Yakima


----- Original Message -----
From: "Rob Sandelin" <floriferous at msn.com>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 9:31 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Eagle hunting technique, I wonder if this is typical?


In December there were a large number of Mallards at Shadow Lake in
Snohomish. I watched an eagle swoop down quite low. There was a panic amid
the ducks who all flew helter skelter this way and that. I watched several
collide with each other in the scramble. One poor duck smacked hard into
another and fell into the water, obviously not functioning right. The eagle
came back and picked up this duck who was injured and thrashing about.

Is it common for eagles to spook wildfowl this way in order to induce them
to smack into each other and get injured?


Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer
The Environmental Science School
http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm
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