This clip of an eagle stealing a fisherman’s catch went viral recently:
@cbsnews EAGLE VS. FISHERMAN: A Florida fisherman caught a small shark near the Dunedin Causeway when a bald eagle came swooping in to claim it. ##news ##eagle ##nature ##florida ##fishing ##shark
It turns out the eagle was already semi-famous, and her name is Eugene. She had a rough start in life, falling off a cellphone tower and badly breaking her leg when she was still just a fuzzy, flightless little eaglet.
Good Samaritans rescued, rehabbed and released her. But Eugene soon got in trouble again, landing briefly in jail and doing another stint in eagle rehab. The woman who first rescued her, Becky Young, recognized Eugene when she went viral this week:
“That’s Eugene!” Young said. “She finally got her white head.”
Read all about it at The Tampa Bay Times.
Open thread!
Who Loves Big Gretch?
West of the Rockies
Man, that poor shark… it’s having a bad day, getting snagged by a fisherman. Probably thinking things can’t get any worse when WHAM!
S. Cerevisiae
I wouldn’t argue with an eagle, let her have the fish!
They are far more common than back in the ‘70’s, it was rare to see them when I was a kid.
Betty Cracker
CNN says the jury reached a verdict in the trial of the goons who killed Ahmaud Arbery. That’s pretty quick! Good for the prosecution?
Elizabelle
Go Eugene. And please, jury, have returned a just verdict.
debbie
here it is live on Fox.
Betty Cracker
I put up a thread for the verdict news. I expect it’ll be a popular topic of discussion, either way.
debbie
Guilty for the son!
debbie
Son guilty on felony murder!
Son guilty on all nine charges!
OzarkHillbilly
Raven bait.
lowtechcyclist
Father guilty on all charges except malice murder.
The other guy guilty on two counts of felony murder, and most of the lesser charges.
Elizabelle
Eugene! You brought us luck. Well, except for the shark.
trollhattan
You go, eagle!
Bald eagles are opportunists happy, for example, to snatch fish from the high-work ethic osprey rather than fish for themselves, but Eugene here demonstrates a different sort of opportunism.
Photo forum I use has a poster who captured a bald eagle not just snatching a fish from the surface, but diving into the ocean and reappearing with a flounder. What we call an eagle overachiever. It’s an astonishing sequence, as I had no idea they would do that.
Faithful Lurker
Several years ago, I was walking the dog along a waterway and saw that an otter had dragged a large fish onto a flat rock near the shore. Just as the otter was getting ready to kill it here comes a bald eagle and grabbed the fish The otter had its teeth in it and they tugged back and forth for a while. Then the eagle saw me and the dog, was momentarily distracted and the otter had the fish in the water and was gone. That poor fish had a very bad day.
Geminid
@S. Cerevisiae: Bald Eagles were just starting their comeback in the 1970s. As you probably know, this was due to the influence of Rachel Carson and her book Silent Spring (1962). Carson’s warnings about the dangers of synthetic pesticides led directly to a ban on DDT for agricultural use, and led indirectly to the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency.
One could argue that Silent Spring was the single most consequential book published in the 20th century. It certainly is a good example of women getting it done.
trollhattan
@Geminid: Agreed. If one measure of a person’s worth is the enemies she has, Rachel Carson had all the “right” enemies. Between her biography and the Perlstein conservatism series I only now understand how much devious energy was aimed at her (and has never gone completely away).
Betty Cracker
@Faithful Lurker: I saw a Red-Shouldered Hawk and Great Blue Heron fight over a bullfrog once. Luckily for the frog, the heron’s initial spearing had killed it.
Matt McIrvin
@trollhattan: There are still people out there spreading lies about how she caused malaria epidemics. (Actually abetted by the pesticide resistance she warned people about.) It’s an article of conservative faith.
J R in WV
Best of luck to the eagle, sounds like a rough way for an eagle to grow up and be cast into the wild.
J R in WV
@trollhattan:
@Matt McIrvin:
And like all the other articles of conservative faith, pure-D horseshit, just like all of Reagan’s BS.
Faithful Lurker
@Betty Cracker: I wasn’t sure who to cheer for, but the otter won in the end
I miss Florida swamps, so much life there. I spent all the time I could in the swamps growing up in Northern Florida. My parents thought I was insane. Although I do have to admit the snakes scared me, it was so hard to see them until they were right there.
Geo Wilcox
@Betty Cracker: We have a front yard, stocked pond that we let get really wild (no mowing or trimming around the edges keeps the Canada geese away). Red shouldered hawks, green and great blue herons bring their kids to learn to fish. It is always amusing to see the hawks learning as nine times out of ten they end up head first in the pond…
Gvg
I think that birds of prey center in Maitland may be the one my sister volunteered at as a teen more than 30years ago.
S. Cerevisiae
@Geminid: yes, absolutely! Rachel Carson is a planetary hero and smaller raptors like Merlins have also benefited from us spewing less poison into the atmosphere.
Kalakal
Hah, have to keep an eye out for her.
We often go for a walk on Dunedin causeway. The bird life here is fascinating to me
John Cole
GET IT EUGENE
No One of Consequence
Careful with that ask, Eugene.