The third apparent Golden Eagle flew in directly at the subadult Golden Eagle. I jumped out of my car and starting shooting these photos showing the sequence of events. Almost immediately the two had their talons locked. Birds of North America (BNA) online notes that when a Golden Eagle is attacked "...often responds by rolling over and presenting talons to the aggressor." That may be what is seen in this first photo.
I found another interesting note in BNA online that sounds a lot like what I observed: "However, 2 instances of talon-grappling in Montana both occurred near an eyrie after a “rushing attack” by an adult at an immature...."
In the next several photos the eagles continue with the talons apparently locked together as they appear to battle each other.
Now it was getting scary as the eagles had been tumbling together with talons locked.
BNA states, "Rarely, lock talons and tumble through the air; sometimes fall several revolutions and other times tumble to the ground before releasing grip."
Fortunately these two did release their grips after a few revolutions and the subadult tucks it's wings to fly away from the attacker.
And the subadult continues flying away from the aggressor. I was too busy with this battle to see what happened to the first probable adult eagle that the subadult had been flying with. As I watched the subadult flying as far and fast away as it could, the Golden Eagle that attacked it appeared to be flying towards the first adult eagle but I quickly lost them all in the distance. Interestingly, though this seemed to take a few minutes my camera documents it was less than a minute from the beginning of the attack to the final photo. SeEtta
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