Drama in the skies

We have been blessed with a couple of clear crisp days.  Mixing some work (raking and bagging leaves) and play (taking my camera on a nature quest) was a great way to spend them.

So back to check out the 'river meeting the sea' area.  There were many shorebirds in the water and flying about; there were seals and sea lions still pursuing spawning salmon; there were a few large dead salmon along the shore which were of interest to the crows...but the main drama of the visit was the interaction between two eagles.

A Bald Eagle was manning a post overlooking the waters when a darker large bird approached ... can you see the dark wings at the lower portion of the left post in the following photo?

This series of photos shows what happened next:

The large dark bird could either be a 2nd year juvenile Bald Eagle or a Golden Eagle; according to the bird ID reply it is hard to distinguish between the two when Bald Eagles are at this stage.