Eagle Action 12-30-13

[Bill Anderson]

Monday (12/30) I ran into a regular local avian photographer. One of the Pt. Edwards eagles was perched on the family tree above the dog park, so we decided to wait for some action.
All photos: 5D Mk III + 100-400L zoom (at 400mm) + 1.4 teleconverter.

From farther south the female looped....


swooped......


and scooped a cormorant out of the Sound.

 

[Bill Anderson]

We were surprised that the eagle went after something as large as a cormorant. Looking at all the seaweed hanging from the cormorant, I suspect it was already dead and the eagle was scavenging the carcass.


The eagle flew towards the shore with the bird.




The eagle was flying very low and the cormorant kept hitting the waves.


The carcass proved too heavy and the eagle dropped it.

 

[Bill Anderson]

The eagle doubled back....


and flew to the piling off Marina Beach to rest.


Her mate remained perched on the family tree.


The female made a second attempt to haul out the carcass....


but dropped it.

 

[Bill Anderson]

The eagle flew south.....


then returned for a third attempt at the carcass, which was floating south and farther away from me with the tide.

 

[Bill Anderson]

She gave up and flew into a tree near the railroad tracks.









A train rolled by. If you look closely, you can see the male on the evergreen at the top of the photo and the female on a branch above the train.

 

[photographmemories]

Nice documentary, Bill.

Yeah, that's getting up there in an eagle's load capacity. From what I understand they really can't take off with anything heavier than them, either. There's a video floating around that shows an eagle trying to pluck a nutria out of the middle of a lake. The eagle does several attempts with fly overs then ultimately comes back and lands in the water, literally towing the struggling nutria to the shore ultimately finishing up there.

I did however, see an eagle take off with what appeared to be a goose up into a snag at the refuge in Sherwood and eat it, right around dusk a couple years ago. That was something.

 

[Bill Anderson]

The female is at the top of this photo.


She flew off as the train was passing by.


Later that day in Mountlake Terrace, I found both of the Lake Ballinger eagles perched in their family tree. I was concerned that I had only seen one eagle since they returned in October, but it appears both are back.


Something got them riled, possibly another eagle that I did not see..

 

[Bill Anderson]

Nice documentary, Bill.

Yeah, that's getting up there in an eagle's load capacity. From what I understand they really can't take off with anything heavier than them, either. There's a video of an eagle floating around that shows an eagle trying to pluck a nutria out of the middle of a lake. The eagle did several attempts with fly overs then ultimately comes back and lands in the water, literally towing the struggling nutria to the shore ultimately finishing up there.

I did however, see an eagle take off with what appeared to be a goose up into a snag at the refuge in Sherwood and eat it, right around dusk a couple years ago. That was something.

I thought of that video as I was taking these shots. The water on the Sound was too rough for the eagle to try to swim the cormorant back to shore.

 

[Terry O]

An amazing sequence you recorded, Bill. That carcass definitely looked heavy!

 

[Bill Anderson]

An amazing sequence you recorded, Bill. That carcass definitely looked heavy!

It would have been water logged as well if it had been out in the Sound for a while.

 

[Bill Anderson]

A website devoted to bald eagles claims that they can only lift 4 lbs. If true, it would dispel many urban legends of bald eagles carrying off very large salmon or small dogs and cats. To put that into perspective, the smaller of my two house cats weighs about 9 lbs, the fatter one weights nearly 13 lbs. Scroll down to "lifting power":
http://www.baldeagleinfo.com/eagle/eagle-facts.html

Personal experience: I photographed an eagle in Edmonds struggling to lift a dead gull from Puget Sound up over Sunset Ave. I have also photographed one of the Lake Ballinger resident eagles struggling to fly off with a coot it had drowned in the lake.