Witnessed the same in the late 80's on Umbagog Lake in northern NH. A Bald Eagle caught a fish too large to fly with made a few passes then landed on the water and stroked the rest of the way to shore. Very cool
Posts: 1630 | Location: Vermont | Registered: 27 March 2006
We watched an eagle land on the water on a northern B.C. lake. What dumbfounded us was when it took off from the water as well. It was floating with wide-spread wings, and the impression I got was that the first wing movement was against the water hard enough to lift its body clear, then the second grabbed air for a vertical take-off. It was like it had done it before.
Could be wrong on the exact mechanics of the thing, but up to that point I thought we were going to watch a bird drown.
We watched an eagle off Port Alberni do the exact same thing with a rock fish one time except he had a couple hundred yard swim. He looked a lot less graceful....lol
I have also seen eagles on the water. One spiraling down after a seagull, the gull got away. Another after a fish, same result.
I mentioned it to a fishing buddy and he saw an eagle pounding another eagle. A younger eagle was pounding an older one, every time the old one would lift off the water the younger one would hit him. The older one would be knocked to the water. Finally the older one gave up and swam to shore.
Posts: 289 | Location: Western UP of Michigan | Registered: 05 March 2007