Bald Eagle + thousands of ducks = instant pandemonium.
Yesterday morning I visited Antelope Island with the goal of trying to learn the tricky ins and outs of my new camera. There wasn’t much action on the island itself but there were ducks along the causeway, mostly Northern Shovelers and Green-winged Teals with a few Northern Pintails in the mix. The vast majority of them were far away on the water but occasionally small groups of ducks would fly by fairly close so I worked on my skills with birds in flight.
Suddenly thousands and thousands of ducks in the distance rose into the air in a panic.
1/5000, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
The catalyst for their agitation was the sudden appearance of a near-adult Bald Eagle looking for duck for breakfast. I could tell by ‘his’ erratic flight pattern through the clouds of ducks that he was on the hunt but on this occasion he was no match for his speedy quarry, though it wasn’t for lack of trying.
These two Green-winged Teals zoomed right past him and for me the three banking teals in the photo help to make the shot, in part because all three are sharp or sharp enough. It appears to me that the eagle is watching the two ducks almost directly below him but knows that he has no chance with them because they’re just too damned fast. I have to wonder if the ducks were deliberately taunting him. Ducks gotta have fun too…
After making multiple attempts on the ducks the eagle gave up and landed on a chunk of ice out on the lake. Probably resting before his next attempt at catching a ducky breakfast.
Ron
I photographed a Bald Eagle chasing an apparently healthy adult male Green-winged Teal until the teal became exhausted and dove into the water. The eagle went into the water after it, and would have got it, except it got too close to a pair of Canada Geese, one of which made a beeline directly toward the eagle. The eagle saw it coming at the last instance and avoided the goose. The teal made good use of the distraction and got away.
That must have been fun to see, John!
Great shot to have 2 flying teal and an eagle all sharp. Green-winged Teal are our fastest flying duck and I don’t recall seeing a Bald Eagle take one. They’re just too fast. But I have certainly seen eagles take other waterfowl including watching one bring down a Canada Goose. I know many people think of Bald Eagles as fish-eating but fish are usually only part of their diet. They dine on many birds (including even Great Blue Herons), mammals, reptiles, craydish, and often, lots of carrion. Their diet is quite varied which may contribute to their success. Most raptors don’t survive their first year of life. Typically about ~70% of raptors don’t survive their first year. For Bald Eagles, that figure is closer to 50%. The ability to eat such a wide variety of prey helps overcome the difficulties of learing to hunt.
Thanks, Dan. Yes, there’s definitely advantages to being a generalist when it comes to diet.
The top teal looks as if he is calling out, “Roger that! I’m going to beak him in five. You two keep distracting him. REVENGE!”
I had a similar thought, Arwen. It’s almost like the top teal was the “wing man” for the other two – watching out for their welfare.
Did not know Bald Eagles went for ducks. Seems to me that would be quite the trick.
Michael, around here they eat a lot of ducks and coots. Ducks are much faster than eagles but just like people some ducks are sick, or old, or injured or just plain slower than others. So the eagles pick of the weak and sick – the slower ones.
See Dan Gleason’s comment above.
The only bird I’ve seen a Bald Eagle eat is a Gull, and don’t know if he caught it or kleptoparasitised it. The chase-to-catch ratio must be good enough to keep trying.
Shouldn’t that be crossfeathers? Groan.
Crossfeathers? HAHAHAHA Ouch!
Lyle, around here in winter ducks and coots are a significant portion of what our Bald Eagles eat. But they’re not fussy like some other raptors are.
The green patches on the duck wings really pop, don’t they! Is the botulism outbreak you documented a few weeks ago over? It would be sad if these pretty ones were similarly affected.
I’ve seen no more evidence of botulism or widespread illness in the ducks, Carolyn. But there’s far fewer of them now than there was just a few weeks ago.
Our eagles definitely prefer fish, but when there are that many other meals available guess it is hard to pass them by. In this case I think the eagle was definitely on the hunt, but I think they sometimes just like to show their power to cause a thousand or so creatures to fly off in a panic. I know our female Harrier does it here. Hope all is well with the new camera.
Everett, there aren’t any fish in the Great Salt Lake but there’s plenty of ducks around.
I’m still struggling with the new camera. Quite a bit actually.
P.S. Eagles beak looks like he had breakfast earlier???
I wouldn’t be surprised. This was fairly late in the morning and there’s lots of ducks out there.
Beautiful! A flock of birds can create pandemonium and confuse a would be predstor no end….;) Hopefully the eagle did eventually get breakfast! Ducks won that round for sure… 🙂
Appears you’re “getting it” as far as the new camera goes….
“Appears you’re “getting it” as far as the new camera goes”
Not really, Judy. That electronic viewfinder is a real struggle for me. I hope I can get used to it.