Alaska Wildlife/bald_eagle

Alaska Wildlife

bald_eagle_salmon.jpg - Bald eagle with salmon seen during our Lynn Canal cruise. The Bald eagle’s fishing style is to swoop down and seize fish in their powerful, long and sharp talons (approximately 1,000 pounds of pressure per square inch in each foot) and carry their food off in flight. An eagle has difficulty carrying anything greater than its own weight. When we first spotted this eagle in the water, the thought was it had tried for a fish and gotten its wings too wet for lift off. It was swimming to shore doing a “Butterfly” stroke with its powerful wings. We cheered it on and were so pleased to see it make the shoreline than shocked to see it pull a salmon (estimated to weigh 10 pounds) up out of the water with its wet self. That Bald eagle worked to hard to share that salmon with any one. (Can’t remember the average ratio for a Bald eagle attempts to success at catching a fish but I remember thinking Babe Ruth had a better batting average.)

Bald eagle with salmon seen during our Lynn Canal cruise. The Bald eagle’s fishing style is to swoop down and seize fish in their powerful, long and sharp talons (approximately 1,000 pounds of pressure per square inch in each foot) and carry their food off in flight. An eagle has difficulty carrying anything greater than its own weight. When we first spotted this eagle in the water, the thought was it had tried for a fish and gotten its wings too wet for lift off. It was swimming to shore doing a “Butterfly” stroke with its powerful wings. We cheered it on and were so pleased to see it make the shoreline than shocked to see it pull a salmon (estimated to weigh 10 pounds) up out of the water with its wet self. That Bald eagle worked to hard to share that salmon with any one. (Can’t remember the average ratio for a Bald eagle attempts to success at catching a fish but I remember thinking Babe Ruth had a better batting average.)

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