Schiess: The royal, thieving bald eagle
Published at | Updated at
The chase did not last long.
After a successful dive and catch by an osprey, one of the nine bald eagles feeding on spawning cutthroats at Henrys Lake saw the successful catch and was off like a speeding freight train. With the large fish in its talons, the osprey’s speed and acrobatics were limited and seeing the eagle on its tail the prized catch was dropped.
The eagle snatched the falling fish in mid air and headed for the nearby shore for dinner.
This reminded me of another battle that raged between our founding fathers in the early history of the United States about the bald eagle.
On July 4, 1776, a committee of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Ben Franklin was formed to produce a new national seal. A debate raged between the three about what animal would best represent the new nation. Adams and Jefferson wanted the bald eagle, while Ben called it a thief, “a bird of bad moral character” who didn’t “get his living honestly” because most of its food was stolen from ospreys. Franklin wanted the wild turkey because it “was a more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.” In 1782, the Continental Congress settled the debate when they chose the bald eagle as the national symbol. Old Benjamin was not happy.
Being more of a scavenger than a hunter, bald eagles will collect carrion from anywhere including road kill and dead livestock. They are excellent hunters, though, and smart birds. Several years ago, I watched a pair take over a great blue heron nest in the middle of a rookery on Mud Lake. It became a fast food restaurant for the eagles with the herons raising food for the eaglets.
On the way home from my Henrys Lake adventure, I saw the male eagle of a pair nesting along the South Fork of the Teton River delivering a snake to the nest. Was this delicacy also stolen? Probably not. With an eyesight eight times sharper than a human’s, a bald eagle can locate a snake slithering through the grass from 500 feet away.
An eagle-eye has two foveae, or retina depressions, that can focus together to give it supreme vision – hence the saying, “eagle-eye.” Humans only have one fovea.
While I watched the male eagle deliver the snake to the nest, I notice how delicately it landed on the nest. With the female still in the nest with a day-old chick, he had to be careful. He quickly left the meal, hopped to a nearby branch and was off again to find – or steal – another meal.
But knowing where ospreys fish may be the most critical for the survival of chicks in the nest for most eagles, and Old Benjamin may be right after all: they are a “bird of bad moral character.” But, as John James Audubon said, they have “always stirred the imagination of man.”