I’m a working guide who spends more than 100 days a year in the Maine outdoors, and much of my life is spent telling stories about things I’ve seen. I get to pass my days with clients from around the world in places like the remote country north of Baxter State Park and the islands of the Maine coast.
The bald eagle is an icon of our country and remote places. A short time ago, there were not many eagles in the state — or the country, for that matter. During my career they have become widespread, to the point where a day spent guiding without an eagle sighting is unusual.
Food
Eagles eat a primarily fish-based diet, so you’ll tend to see them in the vicinity of water, and they are almost always part of the early season fishing mix. One afternoon really made that point.
Captain George Harris of Superfly Charters and I were fishing on the Saint George River between Thomaston Harbor and Warren village, checking to see if the stripers had arrived yet.
At one point on our trip upriver, we had four immature eagles in the air in front of us at the same time. We also passed a couple of adults as we rode along. We passed under one of the nests and were treated to the adult eagle peering over the edge of the nest clearly watching over the chicks in the nest below.
Seeing these eagles really drove home the point that they have recovered to the point of being removed from the Maine endangered species list. There were lots of ospreys around the harbor and, in fact, were very good markers for schools of baitfish.
Shelter
Nests are easy to see: They are large piles of sticks in prominent trees on the shore of a waterbody. Once, I was at the start of a family fishing trip on Seven Tree Pond in Union. I cut the motor and was about to lower the anchor over the side of the boat when I heard lots of eagle cries. I looked across the cove and could see an adult eagle in a tree with a young eagle perched right below it.
We slowly motored over for a better look. The young eaglet was perched in a precarious spot and had his wings spread for support, looking like he could fall out of the tree at any moment. The adult was watching us and the eaglet closely, all the while screeching. I assume the bird was offering encouragement like any parent does when the kids try something new.
We left them and went back to catch perch one right after another. After an hour or so, we saw the eaglet fly back without much trouble to the nest to join his sibling. The young birds spend considerable time hanging around the nest even after they have learned to fly.
Teamwork
One thing I’ve noticed over the years about eagles is that mated pairs frequently work together.
Fishing one afternoon seemed like it would be bleak at best. The air temperature was 51 degrees when I launched, and there was drizzle once in a while. Luckily there was little wind. The wildlife (and fish) more than made up for it, though.
As we passed up the river to Round Pond, I came to a goose with a bunch of goslings. The goose gave me the broken-wing act right off with lots of noise and show. I tried to explain that we had no interest in her goslings, but it was no use.
When we got to Round Pond, I could hear more geese honking loudly in the distance with lots of wing flapping. At first I assumed it was a flock of geese without young just hanging out.
But the experience got more fascinating. Like the first goose I passed, this was a pair with a bunch of little ones, but the additional wings I saw were from a pair of bald eagles. One of the eagles had gotten the adults to do the injured-goose act until they were far from the goslings, and then the second eagle came down and made off with a gosling.
As you might expect there was lots of dismay and noise as the events played out. When I last saw the eagles, they were headed off toward their nest with a meal for what I assumed were their newly hatched young. I saw eagles work together like this in Thomaston Harbor several years ago.
While waiting at the Thomaston public landing for my afternoon striper fishing party, I saw something that I had only seen once before.
An osprey dove and successfully caught a herring. While he was flying off with his prize, an eagle appeared and began to harass the osprey. For several minutes it was quite a display of aerial ability with the more maneuverable osprey avoiding but not escaping the eagle.
After repeated dives from the eagle and an equal number of successful rolls, twists and dives, the osprey gave up and let go of the fish. At that moment, a second eagle appeared out of a nearby tree and grabbed the herring before it hit the water.
Impact
It’s interesting to note how a large eagle population affects other species. For instance there are noticeably fewer cormorants on the waters I fish.
I have also learned that loons all call when eagles are in the air. I assumed this comes from some ancient fear of predators from the air. But I had never seen any sign that eagles care even a little about loons — until one day. Loons are excellent divers, so beyond being a threat to loon chicks I did not think that eagles posed any threat to them.
One afternoon I was on Seven Tree Pond, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a very large splash — about the size a seal might make. I looked carefully and saw nothing for a minute or two, but eventually a loon surfaced. As I watched, the loon dove again with another big splash. I assumed it was bathing or goofing around, but it surfaced and dove again very quickly. By this time, I was paying very close attention.
As I watched, a young eagle hovered over the spot where the loon dove. I guess that the eagle could clearly see the loon from his vantage point above and was simply waiting for it to come up for air. After two or three more big splashes, the eagle gave up the hunt and flew to a perch in a nearby tree. The loon came back up and resumed swimming as if nothing had happened.
I assume that, in fact, eagles might take the occasional adult loon — or at least attempt to. I learn something every day! All I need to do is keep my eyes open.
If you observe the outdoors for a long time, like I have been fortunate to do over a 30-year career as a working guide, you will see many changes — some of them remarkable. The comeback of the bald eagle is one of those remarkable changes.
Don Kleiner of Union runs Maine Outdoors guiding service and is executive director of the Maine Professional Guides Association.