Wild Bald Eagle Eating Live Crab

In one of my very first forays out with the new digital video camera (after three years of still photography) I came across a pair of bald eagle mates enjoying the sun on the Spanish Banks tidal flats in English Bay (Vancouver).

Over the course of about 15 minutes I snuck up slowly, filming at intervals. When I was 10 meters away from the closest eagle I settled down to get some footage when it wafted up into the air lazily, landing about 5 meters away. There, on it's back with it's legs madly waving in the air was a big crab!  I don't know how it got there; the eagles may have caught it earlier and just left it for a bit, or perhaps it got caught in the rapidly outgoing tide.

I managed to get some GREAT footage of the eagle having a nice lunch. At first it doesn't quite know how to get at the tasty belly . .. . the crab is doing a good job of fending off the eagle beak with snapping claws. Then the eagle gets fed up with that game, opens up it's wings and brings one swift claw down *bam* right on the crab. A few quick movements snap off the crab's legs, then it's an easy treat getting at the soft underbelly.

NOTE: I've had a couple of emails asking if I have seen any juvenile bald eagles on the tidal flats; let me direct you to a video from a couple of week ago

FOUR juveniles "fighting" over a fish as an adult looks on