Hello,

I headed up to Lorain Impoundment today to take another shot at seeing the Common Redpolls and was successful beyond my hopes, both as a birder and a photographer.  But that is not what this is about.

After watching the Redpolls for a good long time, I started off to head back to my car.  Looking West from the impoundment I saw 2 juvenile bald eagles flying close together and doing some acrobatics.  When I got my bins on them I noticed that they were chasing a gull of some kind.  The birds were quite far out there…between the lighthouse and the other structure that seems to form the mouth of the harbor, so I could not get a certain ID on the gull, but I am pretty sure it was a Ring-billed.  Anyhow, what was interesting was these two eagles appeared to be working together to actually capture this gull.  The gull seemed to be flying slower and more awkwardly than I would expect one to and it was just barely able to outmaneuver the eagles, having several very close calls.  This went on for a full 3-4 minutes.

Eventually the gull gave them the slip.  I never was able to pick up anything being carried by the gull, but considering the distance it is possible that it had something and did not want to give it up, which is understandable at this time of year.  

Anyway, I was just curious if anyone had ever seen anything like that; and if it is possible that eagles would be “hunting” for another bird on the wing?

Thanks.  Bird on.

Jon Cefus
Cuyahoga Falls


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