An amazing sight today - sorry no photo

[Malcolm]

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.

[haresear]

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

[River Chatter]

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.

[Wildfisher]

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:

[Wildfisher]

Perhaps it was attached by a goosander when it was a parr and still carries a grudge.  :lol:

[emc]

Just love lateral thinking......