Mike & Judy Hines wrote:
>
> While walking down Main Beach, Pouint Lookout, North Stradbroke
> Island early this morning to retrieve an immature Masked Booby (Sula
> dactylatra) found yesterday, I was treated to the spectacle of a White
> Breasted Sea Eagle hunting down a Wedge Tailed Shearwater.
> The activity took place over 100 m away from me and as I hurried to
> the scene, the prey was herded shorewards over the shallows and then
> pursued as it twisted and turned over the beach finally landing in
> exhaustion on the beach to struggle again and then be grabbed by talons.
>
> By this time I was close enough to interrupt activities and the
> eagle flew off. The Shearwater ws not dead but dying. It was a very dark
> bird, but its white toenails confirmed its identity.
> A son had witnessed a similar performance a few weeks earlier, but
> it was offshore. The eagle flew under the shearwater, flipped and
> grabbed the prey from under with its talons.
>
> Mike Hines
Mike
A question, "Why did you interrupt this act of nature?", it was not as
if the W-t S/w was being mauled by a dog, but a natural predator.
Regards
John Harris
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