Bald Eagle Swims

[jsteinhauer]

I saw what I thought was an incredible feat of nature the other day. I wish I'd had a video camera with zoom. It's a bit of a story.

I live on the Lake Superior shore. We have many bald eagles, and my parrots let me know when one is about. Thursday, one was circling just out from the house over the lake and being harassed by seagulls, which is normal. I did not witness what happened, but some time later, I noticed a large bird in the water slowly and laboriously appearing flapping wings to propel itself forward. It had to be about 200-300 yards out, heading for shore. I could tell it was an eagle. I am not aware that bald eages can swim. I though maybe he fell into the water while skirmishing with seagulls.

For those unfamiliar, Lake Superior is very cold. Without a cold water wetsuit, it can be a struggle for a man to swim to shore from 20-30 yards out. Anyway, I probably watched for 20 minutes as this eagle appeared to struggle to shore. Occasionally, it would pause, and I would think that was the end. But no. It eventually passed behind a small point a couple hundred yards up the shore, and I lost sight. I told my wife, and curiosity got the best of her, and she put boots on and trudged through the thick brush to get to where the eagle was, and she told me that she saw it on the shore eating a freshly killed duck or some other water bird. That eagle must have not only swam itself into shore, but dragged a duck, as well. What I wonder, though, is whether the eagle intended to get into the water to get the duck, or inadvertantly got wet, so could no longer fly. And, I wonder, if the eagle had let go of the duck, could it have flown out of the water.