The answer to my curiosity for why these ducks were acting so startled was the sudden appearance of a Bald Eagle flying into view. It swooped, then floated, hovering to a stall; timing its attack, then arrowed straight at its prey. Baldy slammed the luckless bird hard, breaking the water tension with ease. The great bird sat in the lake, floating over its meal, making little effort to subdue the struggling peon under water, drowning. It then proceeded to move toward the island, that was about 15 feet away, by doing the breast stroke with outstretched wings. Reaching the island it hopped up onto land with a limp something dragging underneath and began thrashing at it with its sharp carnivorous beak. Violently shaking its head with each bike, bits of the meal flopped into the lake and began floating away on the light ripples. These, I hypothesize, were feathers of the duck.
My eyes were spring stuck open and wishing to have the ability to zoom in, but very focused on this beautiful and terrible moment of the passing on of energy up the food chain, a life and death display at its finest. I wished I had a camera roling to share this with everyone or sell the footage somewhere, but am realizing and appreciating the simplicity of being the solo witness to this glorious tragedy. I don't think the duck was hollering "why me God?!"
