Bald Eagle lunching on Mallard

Yesterday morning I noticed a gathering of between one to two dozen mallards in a small section of open water on a holding pond at Bassett Creek Park.  The water was still open because it drains in this area to Bassett Creek.  With a morning temperature of 11 below zero, I was wondering if these ducks were still happy they hadn't flown south.

Later in the morning I spotted an American Bald Eagle in the Cottonwood tree it often frequents, mainly during the summer months.  I wondered what it was up to on this chilly day.  I discovered a couple of hours later when I saw this majestic bird fly by my home office window with something in its mighty talons.

I bundled up and grabbed my camera to see if I could discover what the eagle had caught.  After walking around the park and taking a few photos of cattails and the gently falling snow, I thought that the eagle had vanished.  However as I neared home much to my surprise I discovered the eagle perched on a cottonwood, munching away on its prey.  Turns out that one of the mallards who had chosen to stick around this winter was now the subject of the eagle's lunch.