Bald Eagle talons
We pulled into Saginaw Bay in the early hours of the morning, leaving behind a low-lying thick fog which hung heavily over Frederick Sound, visible to us outside the mouth of the bay. The low tide was just beginning to turn which made our morning excursion onto land a true treasure trove of inter-tidal life. We had just heard an excellent and informative slide presentation from Dr. Eliot Drucker the day before on life in the inter-tidal zone, so the mind was prepared, and the eyes discovered. Along the beach, ancient tree stumps were discovered just below the sand and rocks; trees that had at one time in their past history been torn off by glaciers, yet preserved for thousands of years by the low temperatures.
All of us had noticed a subadult bald eagle perched on a group of high inter-tidal rocks as we pulled into the bay and landed on the beach. These barnacle-covered rocks stood head and shoulders above the lower-lying substrate around, and had become a small island as a result of the rising waters. As the tide continued to seep its way up the beach, the eagle's island was noticeably shrinking in size. Without approaching too closely, we could see with our binoculars that the eagle was particularly bedraggled. It had apparently gotten considerably wet, and with the overcast sky, which was occasionally spitting rain in our direction, it wasn't going to dry out any time soon.
It finally reached a decision. It had been looking constantly and intently at the shoreline for quite a while. It is known and has been seen on many occasions that adult bald eagles can actually half swim/half fly for considerable distances to the shoreline (up to a mile in certain accounts). If it has caught a fish, which it does not want to release, yet is too heavy to lift off the water completely, this is the option it might choose, as opposed to releasing the valuable prey. Our immature eagle chose to swim to the shore, which was perhaps 100 feet away at this time. After a jump into the cold water of Saginaw Bay, which was probably around 45 degrees Fahrenheit, it slowly started to row it's way towards the beach. From the beginning, its weakened state soon had it taking longer and longer pauses between wing-strokes. At about 20 feet from shore, we no longer saw movement, though its head was held above water. The temptation to interfere was enormous, but we are only transient visitors watching the play of survival run its course. Who knows what natural weakness caused it to be found in this predicament in the first place?
This young eagle never made it to shore until after death had released it from the struggle. Over 70 percent of all juvenile eagles do not reach adulthood due to starvation, disease, accidents or other factors.
