Subject: fish gotta swim, birds gotta...
Date: Feb 19 00:06:40 2000
From: Ed Newbold - newboldwildlife at netscape.net


Hi Tweets,
Its been a harrowing year on tweeters, first with the Great Horned Owl picking
a fight with a horse, then with the crows playing herd the robin down the
lane. How's a person supposed to top stories like this? Here's a more mundane
story of an Eagle doing the Butterfly which kind of backs up what I was saying
about the Bald Eagles capability for powered flight. The observer speaking
in first person is my friend Lydia who lives on Bainbridge(I'll talk to her
about the use of the pronoun he):

Yes the sight of the eagle swimming, and fighting to take off was fascinating.
People from Alaska had never seen it before. I was observing it at about 10
10m3pm on 2/11/99 at the Bainbridge Island ferry area. I was on the ferry
which was to go to Seattle, and the eagle was flying around with a few
seagulls around him being a nuisance to him. He was a full grown bald eagle
with the black and white plumage. He landed on the water and went under for a
few seconds, and when he resurfaced he seemed to be struggling with something,
because he was pulled off balance every now and then, then he tried to fly,
and did not appear to have the leverage as his wings could only go down to the
water level. We thought he must have a very large fish. Then he started
swimming towards shore, making slow but steady progress. I scanned the shore,
hoping there would not be dogs there. Luckily the shore was empty of dogs and
people. I watched as long as I could but the ferry took off. The next day I
asked a ferry worker, who stays behind in Bainbridge, who was watching the
whole thing about the conclusion of the swim. It took about half an hour for
the Eagle to swim ashore. There was someone there with a camera, who took
photos of the event. I should find out who.. and find out how long it took
the eagle to recover and fly off, or did he eat his fish there. She said that
the fish did not appear to be very large. Although I thought, as I was
watching him swim, that at some point he was turned sideways, and I saw the
fish in the air(still clutched by the talons.) I thought it looked like a
good size fish for an eagle. I meant to tell you about it when I got to
work, but was very busy at work, and did not have the opportunity to do so.
Incidentally he was swimming like a person doing butterfly stroke, using both
wings at the same time,(not a paddling motion)


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