Walked along the river for several miles
and saw nothing special other than a few common mergansers bobbing in a stretch
of fast water. Being mergansers, they would occasionally duck their heads
beneath the surface or dive as they searched for fish.
On the way back to my parked car I saw an
adult bald eagle landing on a nearby utility pole. The eagle was carrying prey,
which at first I assumed was a fish plucked from the nearby river.
.JPG)
Looking through the telephoto lens as the eagle fed, it became obvious that
the prey wasn’t a fish; the prey had a furry tail because it was a gray squirrel:
.JPG)
After a few minutes the eagle moved to
another pole –
.JPG)
Did the eagle kill the squirrel, was it a
roadkill, might it have been electrocuted, did the eagle take the squirrel from
another predator? As so often happens in the natural world, there are more
questions than the information at hand can answer.
Very nice shots -- always fun to see a raptor with prey, and then try to figure out what it is. No question about this victim, though.
ReplyDeleteGreat sighting and beautiful pix!
ReplyDeletePLEASE submit the 2nd photo to Audubon!!!
ReplyDeleteDifficult pics but well captured.
ReplyDeleteWow - amazing shots.
ReplyDeleteFantastic capture of a beautiful bird doing what we do 3 times a day--only it seems more cool when he does it.
ReplyDelete