NORTH RIDGEVILLE, Ohio - Visitors to the Sandy Ridge Reservation on Sunday witnessed a traumatic nature event when a non-resident bald eagle attacked the eagles nesting there.

As birders and trail walkers watched in horror, the invading eagle repeatedly thrashed at the nesting female with its sharp beak and talons, eventually driving it away.

The gravely wounded female was later found on a roadside in North Ridgeville and taken to the rehabilitation clinic at the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center, where it died, said Senior Park Naturalist Tim Fairweather.

One of the Sandy Ridge eagles on the nest in March. The eagle video cam is visible overhead.

But the invading eagle wasn't finished with its assault.

Photographer Daniel Grossi arrived at the nest site about 5 p.m. to find the male on the nest keeping watch on the eaglet. The female invader was perched nearby for at least two hours, eyeing the nest, he said in a Facebook post.

About 7 p.m., the female dove for the eaglet and scuffled with the male. Then she flew away with the eaglet clutched in her talons, he said.

The male screamed, but did not pursue the female.

"It was the worst thing I have ever seen," said Caroline Gerace Martinsen, who witnessed the event and posted her sighting on Facebook. "I hope I never see anything like that ever again."

"I checked the nest this morning and there are no adults or eaglets," Fairweather said.

One eagle cam viewer said he was watching the nest online when the camera suddenly went dark. When the picture returned online a short time later, the nest was empty, according to a Facebook post from Jeff Barnes of Elyria. Glitches on bird cameras are not uncommon.

On Monday, the Lorain County Metro Parks posted a message on Facebook about the attack.

"Sad to report that the resident female Bald Eagle was attacked by another female eagle and died. The same 'intruder' also killed the eaglet."

Bald Eagles have nested at the Sandy Ridge Reservation since 2002, building three separate nests over the years. They built at the present location after Superstorm Sandy destroyed its predecessor in 2012. There have been four different adult eagles during that time, and typically one or two eaglets fledged per year. Last year in Ohio, there were an estimated 221 nesting pairs that produced an estimated 312 young eagles.

Sunday's dramatic eagle attack wasn't unprecedented, Fairweather recalled. The resident female that just died obtained its claim to the territory by killing the original resident female, he said.

Witnesses to the aerial clash may take longer to recover from the bloody trauma than the male eagle, Fairweather said. He quoted a Facebook post from Lisa Romaniuk, who noticed that, afterward, the male eagle returned to the nest where it proceeded to finish eating a duck he had been feeding the eaglet when the attack began.

"Less traumatic for him than us," Romaniuk said. "Nature is not always beautiful but still amazing."

Sure enough, Fairweather reported Monday afternoon that the resident male was observed engaging in courtship activity with the female interloper, who was sporting a deep gash on her face.

"The plot gets deeper," Fairweather remarked.