Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 13:43:09 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: The Riningers Subject: Re: tango de la muerte Comments: To: birder6@juno.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Danny Bystrak wrote: "i got to watch a "tango de la muerte" between an imm. Bald Eagle and a Ring-billed Gull. The eagle finally succeeded and finished the job by drowning its prey, after which it literally swam to shore, using its wings as oars, dragging the gull." I too have seen this feeding behavior: a female Cooper's Hawk swooped in and took a squirrel at the edge of a lake and drowned it in shallow water then dragged it ashore and proceded to have lunch. This all happened right outside my office window so I was fortunate enough to watch events unfold. The killing of the squirrel took roughly10 minutes, the dragging ashore another couple minutes - you could really see the struggle of dragging this heavy, soaking wet entree out of the water. It was a cold day and it was obvious that this hawk wasn't going to give up. She was able to get it ashore in a sheltered area which I was still able to watch with a scope from my office window. I warned others from going near her area; she worked hard for that meal and I didn't want her scared away from it. She certainly wouldn't be able to carry it with her. The whole meal took her approximately an hour. When I returned from lunch she was finished and already gone - the only sign of her presence was the squirrel's innards. Donielle Rininger Warrenton, VA ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================