Golden eagles visit Quail Lodge for lunch.

The apex predator sits high on the limb of a Monterey pine. Far below, through a low, dense fog, a wandering American coot waddles on to the fairway, and into the golden eagle’s deadly line of sight. The coot never has a chance. The golden eagle swoops, tears and gorges, leaving only a mess of feathers.

Frank Schwab, a mechanic at Quail Lodge Golf Course, has witnessed this scene.

“They sit and eat them right in front of everybody,” he says, adding that it seems the eagles are unafraid of the audience. Their three-foot height and seven-foot wingspan help ensure their dining experience goes uninterrupted.

Golf course superintendent Dennis Kerr doesn’t mind collecting the dead coot feathers, as the coots pick at the greens of the course and create more work for him and his crew. “I don’t like the coots,” he says, “but we like the eagles.”

Don Creagrus, local bird expert and author of Monterey Birds, says the coots are part of a diverse diet for the big raptors, which venture from their nest much more in the fall and winter.

“They forage on a wide variety of vertebrates, including coots,” he says. “It’s to be expected that some would forage in the Valley.” Schwab has also seen the eagles prey on smaller ducks.

While the golden eagles sightings are about as common as two-under-par kind of golf eagles—with each occurring once every few weeks—The Atlas of Breeding Birds of Monterey County says that 35 to 85 pairs of nesting eagles are found in Monterey County, and several of these pairs could make their nests in the foothills of Carmel Valley. According to Creagrus, the Peninsula population is stable. Schwab and Kerr both estimate that three golden eagles frequent Quail Lodge, including a younger bird who still shows some downier feathers.