Tag: farmington bay

Bald Eagle Eating a Fish in Mid-air

I’ve often seen Bald Eagles carrying fish but never one actually consuming the meal while flying.  Until yesterday, when I got some photos of the behavior.  Thanks to Mia for calling my attention to it or I may have missed the whole thing.   Eating carp in flight At first I wondered if this eagle was only killing the carp with a lethal bite as I have seen other raptors do in-flight, but then I remembered that it was already dead when it was picked up by the eagle.  These fish were killed by refuge personnel (they use rotenone) in order to prevent damage to the wetlands done by these invasive fish.      Falling fish scales  The four photos in this sequence are in the order that they happened.  Here you can see scales and debris falling from the carp as the eagles very sharp bill does its damage.     Part of the head, including gill flap (operculum) being torn off  I suspect that the reason this eagle chose to consume at least part of its meal in flight has to do with competition.  There weren’t many fish available and lots of hungry gulls and eagles to squabble over them.  If an eagle tried to eat a fish on the ice (the ponds were mostly frozen) other birds would usually challenge them for the meal.  Even gulls were at times very aggressive toward the eagles.  On several occasions I observed gulls biting the tails of the eagles while both were in flight.  Perhaps this eagle figured it had…

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Bald Eagles in Utah

Every winter hundreds of Bald Eagles migrate south from Canada and Alaska and winter in Utah.  They do so because of our relatively mild winters and they are able to find sufficient food here.  Typically they begin arriving in November and leave in March when the ice begins to melt.  They can be found in many areas of the state but a large percentage of them winter on the wetlands surrounding the Great Salt Lake where there are a number of bird refuges and other suitable areas to accommodate them.  Adult Bald Eagle in flight Each year I spend many hours at some of the Great Salt Lake wetlands photographing eagles.  What attracts them to some of the refuges is fish – lots of fish,  especially carp.  Carp are a nuissance for wildlife managers because they root in the mud of the shallow impoundments which makes the water cloudy and unable to transmit light to the bottom.  This disrupts the healthy growth of desirable plant species needed by birds so some refuges “poison” the carp, usually in mid-winter, with rotenone – a non-toxic chemical that forms a film on fish gills preventing oxygen transfer from the water to the blood which kills the carp.  Then it’s feast time for the eagles. Bald Eagles and gulls on the ice It’s common to see several hundred Bald Eagles from one spot.  One refuge counted 408 eagles.   I’ve personally seen 150 – 200 birds on several occasions. Immature Bald Eagle with carp This is why they’re here – fish!  Specifically, carp.  Lots of carp…

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