Hi All: Timely picture from Kelly of what appears to be a western grebe in the talons, although I can't exclude a Clark's. I'm summarizing CBC data looking at increases in eagles and decreases in seabirds in Puget Sound. Most in the birding community are aware that eagles have done a number on great blue heron heronries in the Sound, but in birding along the Vashon Island shore I've noticed that there usually are several pairs of eagles waiting or working the shore. This leads to the question are eagles influencing the distribution of wintering seabirds?. The eagles disrupt loafing and feeding activities, however, in 15 years, I've only seen one success: an eagle nabbed an apparently injured ww scoter. A second instances was of a GB heron grabbed but then lost by an eagle. The heron crashed in the water and then escaped into a boat house at Tacoma Yacht Club. I have seen eagles persistently harrassing scoters by hovering over them and swooping down as the scoter surfaces but didn't to watch long enough to see if the eagle got the bird. The questions then are:Have you seen eagles attempting to take seabirds?What species was the eagle after?Where?When?
Please REPY OFF LIST to gshugart AT ups.edu to reduce email volume. I'll summarize and post the results.
I am aware of the published studies of eagles harrassing seabird colonies. Gary Shugart Slater Museum of Natural History University of Puget Sound Tacoma, WA 98416 253 879-3356 (museum) 206 463-2169 (home) gshugart at ups.edu
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