FW: Lake Tapps, Washington
Published Tue, Mar 10 2009 11:22 AM
A coworker of mine forwarded this to me (via email) at work. I wish I knew who the original source of the pictures and text was, but I don’t. Still, it was rather cool, so I reproduce it below, with a small amount of formatting. [Update: Peter Czukor sent me email crediting Gary Wheeler with the original text and photographs. His email included a link to this posting that seems to give some authority to the claim. Thanks Peter!]
Here's a once-in-a-lifetime event captured on film…
The fellow sitting on the tailgate of his pickup truck never realized the show he was missing.
(620 mm effective Focal Length)
The little duck watches as the Eagle speeds straight at him at about 40 mph.
(760 mm effective Focal Length)
With perfect timing, the duck always dove and escaped with a mighty splash! Then he'd pop to the surface as soon as the Eagle flew past. This was repeated over and over for several minutes. I worried the poor duck would tire and that would be the end of him.
(1,040 mm effective Focal Length)
A second Eagle joins the attack! The duck kept diving "just in time", so the Eagles began to dive into the water after him!
(1,150 mm effective Focal Length)
After several minutes the Eagles got frustrated and began to attack each other. They soon began to dive vertically,level out, and attack head-on in a good old-fashioned game of high-speed "Chicken". Sometimes they banked away from each other at the last possible second. Other times they'd climb vertically and tear into each other while falling back toward the water.
(The duck catches his breath at the right side of this picture.)
(900 mm effective Focal Length)
A terrible miscalculation! The luckiest shot of my life catches this 100 mph head-on collision between two Bald Eagles.
(1,320 mm effective Focal Length)
One Eagle stayed aloft and flew away, but the other lies motionless in a crumpled heap.
The lucky duck survived to live another day.
(486 mm effective Focal Length)
It's sad to watch an Eagle drown. He wiggled, flapped and struggled mostly underwater. He finally got his head above water and with great difficulty managed to get airborne. To my astonishment, he flew straight toward me, and it was the most wretched and unstable bird flight I've ever seen!
(620 mm effective Focal Length)
The bedraggled Eagle circled me once - then lit atop a nearby fir tree. He had a six-foot wingspread and looked mighty angry. I was concerned that I might be his next target, but he was so exhausted he just stared at me. Then I wondered if he would topple to the ground. As he tried to dry his feathers, it seemed to me that this beleaguered Eagle symbolized America in its current trials.
(1,200 mm effective Focal Length)
My half-hour wait was rewarded with this marvelous sight. He flew away, almost good as new. May America recover as well.
(1,400 mm effective Focal Length)
Again, I wish I knew who it was that took these pictures. They're pretty cool. I'm not so sure that most observers would believe that the eagle symbolized anything, except in the mind of the author. Instead they’d think it just was.
Of course if you believe that everything happens for a reason then perhaps this show was staged for just that reason? But of course that requires a bit of faith in intelligent design doesn't it?
[Update: Laurie in the comments pointed me to this video. It looks to be either the same incident or a very similar one, taken from a different camera angle. I don't see a collision between the eagles in the video, nor do I see the duck actually caught, but it's hard to tell with such a small (320x278) video. Still, it's very cool.
Thanks for the video Laurie!]
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David responded with:
 | Pretty cool stuff, indeed.
"...I'm not so sure that most observers would believe that the eagle symbolized anything, except in the mind of the author. Instead they’d think it just was.
Of course if you believe that everything happens for a reason then perhaps this show was staged for just that reason? But of course that requires a bit of faith in intelligent design doesn't it?"
That's one of the neatest things about being human. As Viktor Frankl was wont to go on about, "Man's Search for Meaning" is a big part of what makes a human human. And when meaning isn't blatant, we often inject it into vessels that can't carry the load.
(I still like the last two pics and appreciated the author's symbolism.)
Sidebar about intelligent design: even the "Mystery/Conspiracy/Fiction" Channel (A.K.A. "The History Channel") can't avoid intelligent design advocacy--if just by accident. Program on last night: "How the Earth Was Made"--*heh* "was made"... |
Stanford Matthews responded with:
 | Spectacular, for obvious reasons. |
ablur responded with:
 | Great find and excellent shooting by who ever.
When I was up in Sitka, I got to see a fair number of these magnificent birds. You couldn't help but stare at them in wonder. |
Laurie Bray responded with:
 | Duck lost. http://www.komonews.com/younews/39700392.html |
Perri Nelson responded with:
 | That's an interesting video, taken from a different angle than the photographs. There doesn't appear to be a collision between the eagles in the video, although there seems to be one in the photos. The caption on the news article says the duck was caught, but zooming in to the eagle in the water, I don't see it while the eagle is flying away. That leads me to wonder if this is the same incident, or a different one involving the same birds. Thanks for the update Laurie. |
Marshall Art responded with:
 | All I can say is, "Ah, nature!" |
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