16th Street Basin, Dubuque, Iowa
Snow and ice are melting rapidly here in eastern Iowa. Only in the backwaters of the Mississippi River or places where the water doesn’t have a lot of current, the ice still covers the surface. At ‘16th Street Basin’ in Dubuque, a pond built for flood water protection, only a small strip along the shore had open water today. Probably too small for the Bald Eagles to catch fish but they used the involuntary help of another bird to fill their own stomachs. A whole bunch of Ring-billed Gulls was also present at the pond and they caught fish quite successfully. Well, all what the eagles had to do was scaring the gulls away and literally steal the catch. It happened several times while I was there and it was really fun to watch all the action, although I felt somehow bad for the gulls...
Ring-billed Gulls
All images: Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens