One of the best parts of spending countless hours per week in nature is the never-ending opportunity to view and learn about something I have never seen before.
Nature is indeed the ultimate classroom, one not shackled by standardized tests and routine homework but with a curriculum that only requires a little time, a little effort, and, of course, a little curiosity.
It’s a school where an education is offered daily to those who opt to leave the modern world behind for a spell and go and search for what the natural world has to offer.
Today, while on the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge auto tour route I did just that as I was privy to witness a part of nature not a lot of people get to see, let alone photograph.
It’s the dead of winter and northern Utah has been inundated by hundreds of bald eagles, all here for the same reason, food.
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Bald eagles migrate from Canada and Alaska to the United States during the winter to find food in a more hospitable climate for a few short months.
The Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge is, in fact, one of the areas the bald eagles come to hunt and feed upon because of an abundance of ducks and fish.
But when the coldest parts of winter hit, leaving wetlands and rivers quite frozen as they are now, much of what the eagle relies upon for food has either migrated southward or under several inches of ice.
It is well-known ducks are a staple food for wintering bald eagles, especially here in Utah where wetlands stretch through 4 adjoining counties along the Great Salt Lake.
Just last week, in fact, as I was out at Farmington Bay WMA I watched several bald eagles harass and hunt a large flock of ducks sitting out on the ice.
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With each incoming eagle, the flock of ducks took the sky in a cyclone cloud, only to settle back down again once the danger had passed.
Today, however, while traversing the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge auto tour route, I noticed ducks were in short supply due to the limited open water.
I had not seen any bald eagles either until a flock of gulls that were sitting in an open patch of water in front of me exploded in pandemonium with all of them abruptly taking to the sky.
The culprit was a hungry bald eagle that had its eye on the large flock of gulls.
After getting the gulls in the air and picking one out in particular, the bald eagle commenced a chase on one of the gulls that lasted well over 5 minutes.
Back and forth the eagle and gull crisscrossed the sky above me, many times with the eagle just a few short feet behind the gull in hot pursuit.
But to my amazement, the gull persisted and never gave up and eventually eluded the hungry eagle.
I had never seen or known an eagle to scare up and chase a gull like that, being so determined in the chase I was almost certain it wasn’t going to end well for the gull.
Now to be honest here, I neither rooted for nor against the gull or the eagle.
Both have their place in nature and I feel it is wrong to take sides of one over the other when it is nature as a whole that deserves our admiration.
This interaction was new for me, something I had not known or thought of before where an eagle would so actively hunt and pursue a gull like that.
But it makes sense when I think about it, if and when ducks are in short supply an eagle has to do what an eagle has to do to survive.
Countless times I have seen eagles hunt ducks but this was a first for me, one I am glad I was able to grab a couple images to document what I saw.
It just goes to show you never really know what you will find and what you can learn if you get out and enjoy nature.
I have seen some incredible things on the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge over the years.
I guess that is why I keep coming back, time and time again, even when I have been around the auto loop more times than I can remember.
Yes, it’s the same place, over and over, but it’s never the same experience, not by a long shot and today reminded me of that once again.
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