A South Island local was on his way to photograph wildlife at the ocean when his car’s dashboard camera caught a struggle between predator and prey play out in mere seconds.
Dave Tyre was driving along West Saanich Road in Brentwood Bay when he saw a bird swoop down at the side of the road.
“I thought it was a crow at first,” Tyre told CHEK News. “You don’t usually see eagles this close to the road.”
He soon realized that what he was seeing was an eagle swooping down to catch a rabbit.
RELATED: Netflix series showcasing Vancouver Island’s wildlife gets 7 Daytime Emmy nods
Sure enough, when he replayed his dashcam video he saw the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it battle. Soaring out from some bushes, the eagle grabs a rabbit by the side of the road, but then drops it and flies away.
“I think he planned on coming back because his legs stayed extended, but I think the traffic scared him off,” Tyre said.
As an oceanographer and mariner, Tyre says he encounters wildlife quite a bit, and is now pursuing more photography. He mostly focuses on marine wildlife, but was excited to catch this on his dashcam.
RELATED: ‘Frightening’: Colwood family finds cougar, dead deer in driveway
“I had to rush to grab it because my dash cam records in a loop,” Tyre said. “It records over it in 24 hours, and I also wasn’t sure my dash cam was set wide enough that it caught it, so I was excited to see that it did.”
Tyre says though the rabbit is lucky it didn’t get scooped up by the eagle, he’s not sure it survived since it took quite a tumble after falling from the eagle’s talons.
Laura Brougham
