While my observations of Bald Eagles are limited, I was able to watch one
hunting a flock of coots at Camp Dennison gravel pits last winter.  The flock was
scattered over the water until the eagle showed up, then they clustered
tightly together and moved as a single unit.  As the eagle swooped over them, the
coots dived in a rippling pattern, as if they were a crowd of fans doing the
"wave" at a football game.  Over and over again, the eagle attacked, and the
group of coots continued to dive and resurface, all the while "shuffling" across
the surface to a more sheltered area of the pits.

I never saw the eagle connect with a coot, but there were subsequent reports
on the Birding in Cincinnati web site of an eagle feeding on coots in later
days.



Kathi Hutton
Felicity (SW OH)

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]