by Alan Warneke
Wednesday morning, 1/20/10, I was at the private property where Christensen Creek flows into the cove south of Lisabeula Park. About 11:30, as I walked towards the bulkhead, a small group of ducks exploded into the air and scattered. Moments later, as I looked past the ornamental plants that had partially blocked my view, I saw a large, dark animal struggling in the water. My first thought was that a sea lion had snagged a duck and was thrashing it side to side. However, the dark animal was a bald eagle with only its head, neck and part of each wing above the water. I guessed that it had miscalculated while attacking the ducks. After watching it struggle a few minutes, I figured it was doomed. However, it started doing the "butterfly” stroke toward the beach on the south side of the cove (I was on the north side). The water was calm, but the eagle was at least 80 yards from the beach. Only its head, neck and the front-middle part of each wing remained above water. After the eagle had swum about halfway to the beach, I ran to my van (about 50 yards away) for my binoculars and ran back to the bulkhead.
When I returned, the eagle had just reached the shore and was clutching a struggling, male, common merganser with one foot. The merganser made it back to the edge of the water, but the eagle flew up vertically 4 or 5 feet, jerking the duck into the air, and then landed a few feet up the beach, which was only 6 feet wide and backed by a nearly vertical, dirt wall. This was repeated a few times until the eagle was able to sink the talons of both feet into the merganser. The merganser remained upright and continued to struggle toward the water as the eagle, standing on top of it, began tearing feathers from the area where the merganser’s right wing attached to its body. A flotilla of feathers at least 20 feet long floated on the calm water. The merganser made no sound, but continued to struggle toward the water as the eagle ripped into its flesh. I kept hoping the eagle would sever the spine or neck. Instead, it tore at the merganser's side until the right wing appeared to be nearly severed from the body. Finally, after about 5 minutes, the eagle must have damaged a vital organ or blood vessel, for the merganser's head suddenly fell limply to the sand. About two hours later, the tide had gone out sufficiently for me to reach the kill site. I found only feathers- no head, feet or entrails. I didn't know eagles could do the butterfly.