Fish Eagle

Great views of the White-tailed Eagle again this morning from Aughton Church. After 20 minutes of quietly surveying the scene, it flew north, dropped over the flood bank and returned with a large and living fish.

This was quickly dispatched before it began its fishy breakfast. A small crowd of local Carrion Crows had gathered, eyeing their huge cousin with fascination. Never one to miss an opportunity, one pair of plucky corvids began to work together, taunting the raptor by pulling its tail, or a wingtip, causing the eagle to turn round to see off the nuisance. Whilst distracted, the other crow attempted to pinch the fish. After several attempts, one crow succeeded and pinched a part of the fish. Too big to fly away with, the crow landed a few meters away and the surprisingly agile eagle bounded across the grass and retrieved its breakfast. 

To add to the comical scenes, a pair of rather anxious Egyptian Geese walked past the feeding hulk very gingerly. We thought perhaps the eagle would decide to follow its fish course with some goose, but it barely seemed to notice.

Having demolished the fish, the eagle pottered down the bank for a refreshing drink of icy water. We took our cue to leave and head off round the valley in the glorious winter sunshine, to see what else we could find. 

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This is my last blog post of 2025. Happy New Year to all my friends and the readers of this blog and hopefully I'll get to do some birding with you in 2026!