Baldy Hits the Food Court for Take-out

...okfine, this was supposed to have been my update on Thursday, April 29th's outing to Serpentine Fen and Elgin Park, but it has been trumped by today's hit-and-run to the Boundary Bay dykes area, as I was twitching badly for an Eagle fix. Went to my usual no-fail 72nd Avenue hotspot, only to be somewhat disappointed by a meagre pair of Bald Eagles soaring at heights well beyond my camera's ability. I carried on to some more sideroads, being very careful to not to land in the water-filled ditches that surrounded both sides of the road, and turned onto a road running east of a sod farm. I was distraught, and had actually begun to photograph Red-wing Blackbirds out of desperation, arghhhhhhhhh. All of a sudden, I looked in my rear-view mirror back towards the sod farm, only to see all sorts of gulls acting up, big deal, right?? Yup, you betcha:

• 
  
  Sod farm= gulls
• 
  
  Gulls= take-out for Bald Eagles, or so it seems

There were at least four bald eagles that came out of nowhere and began to dive-bomb the gulls:

Here's a young one, I'm guessing at a third year, he had his choppers open the whole time, he'd obviously been out partying all night, look at the state of his feathers:

He landed in a tree right next to where I'd left the car, I gave thanks to God.

Then it gets interesting, I realize that Baldy has done take-out, something is being carried in its talons!:

Here he/she is, coming in for a landing to chow down, in the very same tree as the younger one:

Now he's tearing up his prey, I zoomed in on some flight photos to determine what it was, and it appeared to be a wing of some sort:

Finito, mmmm, mmm good:

All of this happened in the space of fifteen minutes, it was totally amazing. As John, Doug, and Ann can attest to, in my usual, civilized demeanour when out birding, I was quiet as a mouse the entire time- yeah right. I was shaking like a leaf, it was so unexpected and incredible to witness, in fact I am shocked that any photos were even in focus. In the end, though, I became jaded and drove off, leaving both Bald Eagles behind in the tree.  

As for my BOTD? Puleassssssse. Trip report on the yesterday's wuss birds at the Fen & Elgin Park to follow tomorrow!