Bald Eagle Catches Gosling

I went to the lake today, and decided to only take my 24-105mm lens since I was walking the nature trail. When I got out to the lake, I saw some Canada Geese. A few minutes later, a bald eagle came by and was swooping down at the water. I grabbed some photos, but couldn't tell what he was doing. When I got home and zoomed in (only had my 24-105 so I had to crop big time), I saw that he had grabbed a gosling!

Nice shots.

Poor thing. I have watched our eagles here closely for 4 years now and never saw them take an interest in anything but fish. Even in dead of winter when they were hungry, they would fly low over the mallards who just ignored them, and would go for a nasty, little, dead, Gizzard Shad, rather than a nice warm plump Mallard.

canonloader wrote in post #10189347
Poor thing. I have watched our eagles here closely for 4 years now and never saw them take an interest in anything but fish. Even in dead of winter when they were hungry, they would fly low over the mallards who just ignored them, and would go for a nasty, little, dead, Gizzard Shad, rather than a nice warm plump Mallard.

They don't mind eating birds. During the oolichan (small fish in Northern BC) run earlier this Spring, my buddy got some photos of a bald eagle eating a seagull. A woman in my photo club got some photos of a bald eagle attacking a swan in flight a few years ago. Being scavengers, I have also seen them feasting on sea lion carcasses on the beaches up here.

Nice shots - that must have been one hell of a shock for the gosling, being plucked out of the lake like that !

Consider yourself fortunate to have seen this. It would have been nice to have a longer lens but you did a nice job with what you had. I have seen them eating a duck up in a tree.