Swooping bald eagle kept trying to catch a coot at SLO County lake. See the video
On Thursday, 65-year-old Mark Masicampo was fly fishing with his family at Atascadero Lake when he spotted an interesting animal interaction.
A bald eagle dove repeatedly at a coot, seemingly ignoring the other flocks of birds in the lake. The eagle appeared fixated on the singular, small waterfowl.
“He was swooping down and trying to grab him by his tail,” Masicampo told The Tribune on Monday. “I’m pretty sure he was hunting.”
Quickly, Masicampo took out his phone to take a video.
Masicampo — a long-time fly fisher — has had many rare animal sightings over the decades, but never one quite like this.
Each time the eagle made a diving pass, the coot ducked under the surface of the water, before popping back up.
“It was weird,” Masicampo said. He’d seen eagles hunting fish before, but had “never seen it attack a bird like that,” he said.
It was likely that the bald eagle was preying on the omnivorous coot, which feasts on the lake’s plant and fish life, Masicampo said. They are usually prime prey for birds at the top of the food chain, he said.
He said he recalled once seeing a golden eagle hunting fish at Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County in the same manner.
Local wildlife photographer and Templeton resident Nelson Decker previously captured an image of a bald eagle mid-coot-hunt at the lake a few years ago.
After seeing Masicampo’s video, he shared a photo of the eagle with a coot firmly in its talons.
Decker, 71, frequents Atascadero Lake about five times a week but said he only sees bald eagles about every six months or so. The best time to spot one is first thing in the morning, he told The Tribune.
“They come and go,” Decker said of the birds of prey. “If they’re down there, they’re either hunting the coots or the fish.”
This story was originally published January 21, 2025 at 2:56 PM.
