Suckers

A sucker has its mouth on the bottom of its head, a feature which facilitates sucking up silt from the lake bottom, out of which it sifts and eats detritus and bottom–dwelling organisms, such as crustaceans and worms. Suckers will also eat surface insects and small fish. Owing to their largish size, suckers don’t need to seek cover from other predator fish, although, as the pictures below illustrate, when the sucker approaches the lake surface to feed on insects, they, in turn, often fall prey to raptors.

There are two species of suckers in Kootenay Lake: longnose sucker, largescale sucker.

I am guessing that these are largescale sucker.

Is this Bald Eagle carrying a sucker? I cannot tell, but there is a good chance that that is what it has.

A male Osprey stops for breakfast after catching a largescale sucker at sunrise.

A male Osprey stops for breakfast after catching a largescale sucker at sunrise.

A female Osprey is carrying one of its favourite foods: a sucker.