Mike Powell

This Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) must have decided that it wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving with poultry rather than fish. A Wild Turkey would have been too big, so it looks like the eagle settled for a duck.

As I approached the large eagle nest at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, I was shocked to see that there was an eagle in the nest. As I watched, the eagle moved about a bit, bobbing its head up and down. I assumed that it was making minor repairs to the nest, but I was wrong.

It was only when the eagle flew out of the nest that I realized that the movement I had observed had been feeding behavior. I did not get a good look at the prey that was dangling from one of the eagle’s feet as it flew away, but assumed that it was a fish. Once again, I made a wrong assumption. When I looked at the images on my compute screen, I could see that the prey was some kind of duck, though I did not get a good enough shot of the duck to identify its species.

I don’t know how often eagles prey on water birds, but this is not the first time that I have seen it happen. Check out my March 2023 blog posting called “Eagle grabs coot” in which I featured some photos of an eagle encounter with an American Coot.

When I looked out on the waters of Occoquan Bay, I noticed that several rafts of ducks were present. They were pretty far away, but I did managed to identify numerous Ruddy Ducks and Buffleheads in addition to a few Pied-billed Grebes. The size of these groupings of birds varies throughout the colder months, but I can usually count on seeing them during late fall and winter months. If the eagles feel lazy or want a change in diet, I suspect that it is much easier for them to grab a duck that a fish.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.