Survival of the Fittest!

The other day Jen noticed a commotion out on the water in front of the deck. She grabbed her camera and ran out the door--calling, "The river otters are attacking an eagle in the water!"

We watched the eagle thrashing the water with his wings and pulling slowly closer to shore.

A river otter popped up right behind the eagle.

And disappeared again.

It popped up again.

This time we could see the otter had part of a fish in its mouth, and the eagle had clearly snatched the fish away from the otter.

Guess who won? (The answer may surprise you--this isn't over!)

The fish was a Great Sculpin, a large bottom fish that the river otter evidently dove down after, grabbed, and brought up to the surface. Eagles perch in trees next to the water watching for schools of fish, inattentive seagulls, or anything else in distress. This eagle (we call him the "Commuter" because we always see him flying up the bay in the morning and out the bay in the afternoon) was able to pull the sculpin away from the otter and drag it up on the rocks to eat.

Jen was able to get within a few yards of the eagle while it was enjoying its lunch. When I snuck out to take a few photos of Jen taking photos of the eagle, Feral Bueller, the formally wild cat snuck out behind me and made a beeline for the fish with her collar bells merrily jingling away.

The eagle stopped eating long enough to check out the cat working her way along the rocks.

Jen freaked out (as she continued clicking away) as Feral ignored her shouts of "NO, Feral, NO!" and ordered me to save the cat from becoming Dessert Tartar. As we chased after the cat, the eagle flapped his mighty wings and attempted to take the fish and fly away, but it was too heavy. The eagle took one last bite of the fish before taking off for the trees as Feral checked out her freshly commandeered booty.

The sculpin was too big for Feral to drag off, so she gave it a sniff and headed back up the beach. We're not really sure if she was after the fish or the eagle. Jen calmed down, Feral headed back to the house, and all worked out well, especially for the idiot who let the cat out in the first place.