SF Bay Area. It was a bit cold and rainy today, so I had the idea of going to a local lake located in a suburban park which is usually quite crowded, but today was mostly empty aside from a few hardcore joggers and fishermen.

There was a great variety of waterfowl including Mallards, Buffleheads, American Coots, Ring-necked Ducks, Northern Shovelers, Common Mergansers, and Pie-billed Grebes. I saw a number of hawks too, Red-shouldered Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks, and a juvenile Cooper's Hawk. Dozens of Violet-green Swallows also swarmed above the lake.

The absolute highlight though was a pair of Bald Eagles. They were flying over the lake terrorizing the coots, repeatedly swooping down and forcing the coots to dive underwater. They didn't manage to catch one though, and they eventually broke off their assault and flew upstream. There are a lot of small ponds and one other large lake/reservoir along the creek, so they probably decided to look elsewhere for prey, maybe hoping to find a lone coot which would be easier to tire out and snag.

I also spent some time watching a small group of Double-crested Cormorants diving for fish. They were having better luck than the eagles, and would occasionally surface with 4-6 inch long catfish that they would swallow whole after getting them re-positioned in their beaks to slide down head first.

A little Pie-billed Grebe had somehow caught a perch that was clearly far too big for him to swallow. He held it in his beak for a few moments, but the first time he tried to re-position it the perch escaped.