![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/bald-eagle-1304-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"bald-eagle-1304-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nWhen they’re not scavenging for food Bald Eagles can be fierce and opportunistic predators. But they’re big and relatively slow so catching live prey isn’t easy for them.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Five days ago while I was attempting to photograph ducks in flight along the Antelope Island causeway this near-adult Bald Eagle swooped in looking for duck for breakfast. ‘His’ sudden appearance on the scene caused thousands of ducks to rise up off the water in a panic but most of them were much too fast for him in flight and he knew it. He was looking for weakness – a duck that showed signs of injury or illness that would be slower, less agile and more vulnerable than the others, for whatever reason.<\/p>\n He seemed to have two strategies for detecting a duck that was acting differently than the others.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Sometimes he would fly horizontally and at speed through the flocks of ducks to test their reactions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/6400, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Other times he would quickly gain elevation above a mass of ducks in flight below him and then…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/8000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n dive down through the flock to test their reactions. He dove on them three or four times in the less than two minutes he was hunting them.<\/p>\n But on this hunting foray he never caught a duck so he…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/6400, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n retired to a chunk of ice to the west of where all the ducks were congregating and watched them from a distance as he rested. To get this photo I had to drive about a quarter mile west along the causeway but he was still far out on the lake.<\/p>\n Only five days later this part of the causeway looks very different than it did on that morning. Most of the ducks are gone, as is the ice, and I haven’t seen an eagle in the area since I photographed this one.<\/p>\n Hopefully the ducks will soon be replaced by hordes of migrating shorebirds. Given the dire situation the Great Salt Lake is in that may or may not happen.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When they’re not scavenging for food Bald Eagles can be fierce and opportunistic predators. But they’re big and relatively slow so catching live prey isn’t easy for them.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/bald-eagle-1301-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"bald-eagle-1301-ron-dudley\\"")
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