David Winer wrote: > This morning (Saturday, November 28) one of the participants on the > Wild Bird Center walk from Potomac Village said, "An eagle, flying!" > All binoculars went to the Bald Eagle over the Potomac about a half > mile above Great Falls. The eagle was circling at about 50 feet. > Immediately its mate joined the rotating parade. Then we discovered > what the exercise was about-- an American Coot was under attack. The > coot would dive each time an eagle approached. This behavior went on > for several minutes without any resolution. Then the eagles changed > their tactics. One would make a gliding approach to the coot, driving > it down. The second eagle would be in trail, about five seconds > behind, so that the coot was forced under water continuously for long > periods. Next, the eagles introduced short phases of hovering, Osprey > and Harrier style, to hold the coot down longer. The hapless prey > could only stay on the surface momentarily. Suddenly one of the > eagles simply dropped from about 20 feet to the water and stopped... > just floating motionless. We figured that it had the coot in its > talons and was drowning it. Sure enough, after a couple of minutes, > the eagle began what someone termed a dog-paddle with its wings, > heading toward a rock island about 50 yards away. When it reached the > rock and climbed out of the river it had the coot. Soon, the eagle > flew downstream with its prize. Later, across from the viewing > platform near the Great Fall Tavern, we came upon a spectacle of eagle > ripping coot into shreds on a log while the eagle's mate waited in a > branch overhead. -- Dave Winer davidwiner@erols.com > Dave: > Thanks for a great story. It brought to mind a similar scenario I > witnessed on a trip about 8 years ago. The same characters, a pair of > eagles, and one hapless duck being forced repeatedly underwater. It > was like something right out of Wild Kingdom. I had never seen, nor > have I seen since, eagles operating in this fashion. In this case, > they expended much valuable energy for naught, as the ( waterlogged ) > duck escaped. We really didn`t know who to root for. I always feel > sorry for the " underduck ", but at the same time , the eagles missed > a needed meal. I wish I`d kept the account that a trip member sent to > me; I wasn`t into keeping records back then. > Leslie Fisher > North East MD