I know it is dangerous to anthropomorphize, but it was almost impossible to watch this scenario play out and not make comparisons to a gang of humans playing the"knockout game" with an unsuspecting victim. I saw this drama take place on Lake McConaughy on our way home from Nebraska.
WARNING: There are some people who will have extreme empathy with the snow goose in this post.
I recommend you go no further.
I noticed the large gathering of bald eagles when we pulled up to the lookout point. On our first trip through most of the baldies were spread out over the lake so I knew that something unusual was taking place. It was a long way off but I was able to follow what was happening through my 400mm lens.
The eagles were taking turns flying in and "punching" the snow goose as they landed. After they took their turn they would often get up and fly away, leading me to believe they were making a sport of the exercise rather than looking for a meal.
After each hit the goose would hang his head and then gradually come back to standing until the next eagle dealt him a blow.
Over the course of the ten minutes or so I watched I saw at least 20 eagles rotate through the site. The one constant individual in all this was the immature eagle you see directly in front of the snow goose. Maybe the bigger birds were conducting a training session for the youngster on how to capture a goose meal.
I was astonished to see the snow goose get up and fly away after taking multiple hits over 10-15 minutes. But as you can see in this last photo, the immature and an adult eagle were in hot pursuit.
It is probably a good thing that my card registered full at that moment as the ending was not a happy one for the poor goose.
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