Eagle vs Swan

All photographs courtesy of Kelly Munday
http://community.livejournal.com/wtf_nature/268636.html?thread=8959324
R. of Illinois discovered this sequence of photos and passed them along to us. All I can say is, Kelly Munday was in the right place at the right time and made the most of it. The sequence is unlikely to be replicated any time soon.

Here's what Kelly had to say--
“We went to the mouth of the Lakelse River (in British Columbia, D.B.) and spotted a pair of swans. I took some photos of them flying overhead. An eagle came out of nowhere and grabbed one swan and tried to take it down,” she writes.
The swan was able to get loose and went back into the water and eventually swam away. It was an amazing thing to witness and photograph. I was just lucky to have my camera ready!”

Again, according to Ms. Munday the Swan landed in the water and swam off.

I get the feeling that Bald Eagles are regularly willing to take on prey animal that seem too much for them. Let's face it a Swan is no pushover. Plus I saw a photo at The American Museum of Natural History (Great avian photography exhibit, I believe it's called On The Wing--GO, if you have a chance.) of two Balds cooperatively carrying a very large fish on the wing.

Donegal Browne