Subject: [Tweeters] Eagle catches duck, Richmond Beach
Date: May 10 20:12:32 2012
From: Dennis Paulson - dennispaulson at comcast.net


They get a lot of grebes that way also. It's probably pretty easy for them to track the diving bird underwater and follow it. Depends who gets more tired first, and it seems usually to be the prey.

Dennis

On May 10, 2012, at 7:37 PM, Jeff Kozma wrote:

> Yes, this is a common tactic for Bald Eagles hunting waterfowl. I have observed it numerous times on the Columbia River as they attempt to hunt coots and ducks such as scaup and Buffleheads.
>
> Jeff Kozma
>
> Yakima
>
> j c r underscore 5105 at charter dot net
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Jennifer Bendemire
> To: Tweeters
> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 9:38 PM
> Subject: [Tweeters] Eagle catches duck, Richmond Beach
>
> Was a couple miles down from the park at very low tide, walking the beach, and I observed a bald eagle "fishing," or so I thought. The eagle descended slowly and then began hover over the water. My loyalties switched in a split second as I realized he was after a diving bird (what appeared to be one of the smaller grebes). The grebe dove, then emerged, dove again, emerged again... meanwhile the eagle hovered and made occasional diving arcs over the water. More quickly than I would have expected, the grebe fatigued, and only made the shallowest of dives as the eagle descended more purposefully and finally grabbed onto the bird and carried it off to a sandbar. I have never seen anything like this, and quickly realized that my own mixed emotions had absolutely nothing to do with what was going on out there. It left me wondering, though, if this is a typical strategy for eagles, to hover and dive, thereby wearing down an otherwise healthy appearing, adult grebe or sea duck? And what proportion of an eagle's diet is waterfowl vs. fish?
>
> Jennifer Bendemire
> jbendemi at hotmail.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters
> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters

-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20120510/de1b6cb0/attachment.htm