Tweeters,

Most literature will state that the Bald Eagle is not very good at fishing.
It prefers carrion such as spawned out salmon along the Skagit River. I have
seen them a couple of times here over Twin Lakes pursuing Ospreys carrying
fish. I had one incident this summer, which ended when the Osprey dropped
the fish after some amazing aerial combat. The eagle caught the fish in
mid-air before it hit the water.
A few years back I watched an adult Bald Eagle chase a single Cackling Goose
over the marina at Damon Point - Ocean Shores. Whenever the eagle was just
about to grab the goose, the goose would sense it and cut in the "burner".
The second time around, I swear that I could see the eagles tongue hanging
out! The chase ended, when the goose wisely decided to fly under the
telephone wire at the motel there and the eagle had to pull up at the last
minute to avoid colliding with the wire. This gave the goose enough head
start to escape.

I also watched a three way chase when rounding a curve east of Prineville,
Oregon on the way home from Malheur NWR. A Prairie falcon was carrying a
ground squirrel with a Bald Eagle and a Golden Eagle in hot pursuit.
Normally the falcon would out-fly the eagles, but it was handicapped
carrying its prey. The falcon decided it was smarter than the two brutes and
dropped the ground squirrel in a field. Both eagles dove for it, but the
slightly larger Golden won.

Good Birding!

Hans Feddern
Twin Lakes/Federal Way.WA>

On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 8:46 PM, Martin Muller <martinmuller at msn.com> wrote:

> Bill,
>
> Bald Eagles most of the time swooping low over the water and pick prey up
> off the surface without too getting wet.
> However, they have many more methods in their repertoire and will dive, or
> walk, into water to retrieve food. They may land on top of a prey item (coot
> for instance), and float on the surface while squeezing and drowning the
> coot.
> I've heard reports of eagles swimming to shore, dragging large prey items
> onto shore with them.
> They may pursue other birds in order to make them relinquish the food they
> are carrying (gulls, Osprey, cormorants). The eagle may pick the dropped
> item up out of the water, or simply do a barrel roll and catch the item in
> mid-air, depending on the situation.
> Young eagles (as young of most species) will do unusual things, including
> pretending to be an Osprey. After all that niche is empty in this area
> around this time of year :)
>
> The above is based on literature as well as many hundreds of hours of
> observing eagles in the Seattle area and other parts of western WA. I'm sure
> there are many different observations of other more unusual hunting
> techniques by Bald Eagles. I would start by checking the Birds of North
> America account on the Bald Eagle, specifically the Food and Feeding
> section.
>
> Martin Muller, Seattle
> martinmuller at msn.com
>
>
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