The redtail is dead in the last photo, also the owl would never turn its back if it wasn't. That's one thing i sometimes have to keep in perspective when i am photographic birds in nature. That's just the way it is, it's part of the balance.
I kind of feel sorry for red tails though, they are not great fighters with other raptors, and a lot of them get killed in Toronto, especially by the Peregrines. The Etobocike Peregrines (Clarica Building) have killed at least 11 redtails. There is a link to an item recently posted by Pergrine Foundation.
http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/tops/ettop.htmlI guess we have to realize that it's just a part of nature. I love watching eagle, and this summer i took over 6000 pics of 4 eagle nests in Victoria, and witnesses the fledging of 8 young eagle over a 3 week period. Unfortunately though, the statistics are that only one eaglet from each nest generally makes it to 1 year old. As i was photographing them, i thought, it's too bad the sea gulls were harrasing them so much, both in the trees around the nest and along the beach, but then when you consider that the adults from all 4 nests put their young on a red meat diet about 3 weeks after hatching, which included baby seagulls (this was daily source of food for the young), baby herons, at least one domestic cat taken from the edge of the Oak Bay golf course right in the middle of the afternoon with several golfers around, assorted fish, etc, it's only fair that the adult seagulls get to harrass them.
One eagle at Beacon Hill Park also destroyed an entire Heronry eating an estimated 187 babies and over 200 eggs. The herons had nested there for years, and have tried to relocate to various parts of the southern island.
On the other hand we had a migrating adult bald eagle at the Orangeville Reservoir, that saw one of the 2 juvenile Osprey carrying a pike. I had photographed (approx 1600 photos) the juveniles being fed by the adults, fledging etc, so i was really shocked when the eagle dove straight into the juvenile Osprey and sent it crashing into the reeds, to force it to drop the fish. The juvenile managed to fly out of the marsh, and flew south and never returned. That was on September 14th, the remaining Osprey migrated on September 17th
One of the adult Osprey was on the nest box and the other was flying along the lake returning to the nest when this happened. The adult Osprey that was returning to the nest saw the eagle attacking the juvenile and climbed up in a tight circle over the eagle about 300 ft above and dove talons extended straight into its head.
The eagle went crashing out of control into the weeds, and was there for about 2 hours 15 minutes, when it finally managed to fly out, it looked confused and was flying erratically, and accidentally flew near the Osprey nest box. The adult Osprey that had attacked the eagle the first time, was sitting on a telephone pole about 100 ft from the nest box, once again saw it, and pulled off the same maneuver, climbing in a tight circle and bashing straight into the eagles head again. This time it killed the eagle. The next day there were 5 turkey vultures eating the carcass.
On the other side of the reservoir at Orangeville, in the cemetery i had been photographing, shrike, goshawks, harriers, red tails, broad wing, etc. all summer, and a merlin that always sat on the tallest pine on the cemetery. On Nov 3rd, the merlin was there when i drove in, and by the time i parked, and put my zoom lens on the camera, it flew low over me and over to another tree that it like to hunt from. I walked around the tree stand, and saw a carcass laying there that didn't appear to be there when i parked. It was the merlin. I never saw what had attacked it except for brown wings, but it flew up into a tree deeper in the forest. I got into position hiding in the bush with my camera for over an hour to see if the attacker would return to the carcass, but it didn't return. Whatever it was only removed the head and neck.
