I was down the river this morning and 30 yards or so upstream there was a female goosander which had just surfaced. Suddenly the water exploded and the goosander was knocked about 6 feet back. No sooner had it landed than it was attacked again - this time I saw the assailant - a salmon. The goosander thrashed away and flew off upstream. Quite amazing. I had my camera with me but this all happened too quickly.
Does anyone have a reliable pattern to represent a goosander? :)
That must have been amazing to witness Malcolm. I've never heard of such a thing before.
Obviously the salmon was clearing the intruder off its redd.
Alex
WTF! :shock: Video footage of such an unusual spectacle would have drawn a huge number of viewers on the Net! I wonder if salmon can recognise an avian predator of fish in the same way that birds can recognise a predator of other birds... if that makes sense.
It's high time there was a nationwide salmon cull organised. Yes, you can put up them in reasonable numbers, but when they reach the plague proportions we are now witnessing it's obvious they represent a clear and ongoing danger to our precious goosander stocks. This latest incident just confirms that.
Sounds in some ways familiar? :lol:
Perhaps it was attached by a goosander when it was a parr and still carries a grudge. :lol:
Just love lateral thinking......