Saturday, February 18, 2012 (Map 45, Washington County)
I turned around after watching my 11 year old friend Victoria pull her 19″ small mouth bass out of the ice to see Tammy pointing. “Oh my God, look!” This American bald eagle had landed on the ice only 100′ behind us. It slowly made its way over to the pickerel. We were happy to let it have the fish.Tammy gathered the rest of our fish and hid them under a JetSled.
An American bald eagle stole a pickerel from ice fishermen.
It seems someone has been feeding the eagles on a regular basis. I’ve never been near eagles that were as comfortable with people as two of the four we saw. I had my camera in hand already so, in jeans and long johns, no ski pants because it was a warm day, I stretched out on the ice taking photos for 10 to 15 minutes. It was worth being wet and cold for a few hours.
The bald eagles stayed on the ice with us much of the day.
