A few years ago, a friend was fishing in the Lehigh River and watched a bald eagle snag a fish, maybe one of the trout he was hoping to grab on one of his dry flies.

He described how the bird hovered briefly over water, slowly dropped like on a string and then, with legs and talons extended, it dove into the water. It was almost completely submerged and, in an instant, rapidly flapped its wings to get out of the water. He even noted how it appeared to shudder as it was shedding the water from its feathers.

It was a successful effort and the bird took off with the fish in its talons.

Did you catch something amiss in that account?

Bald eagles and ospreys both seek out relatively large fish to catch. How they catch them, though, is really quite different.

The bird described in my first paragraph was not a bald eagle. They do look a bit similar; dark body, both rather large birds, and the osprey also has some white on its head.

But bald eagles don’t dive feet first into the water. They fly just above the water’s surface, extend their talons, and then, while flying, grasp a fish from close to the water’s surface and continue flying.

I’ve never seen it in person, but I’ve viewed a few video clips where an eagle impales a very large fish with its talons but it is too large to carry away. These clips have shown eagles “swimming” with their wings and struggling to get ashore with their prizes.

One clip showed that the eagle had a very large and heavy catfish.

It may surprise you that there are more bald eagles nesting in Carbon County and our Times News region than ospreys. So, for most of the year, if you’re at Lake Hauto, Mauch Chunk Lake, Beltzville Lake or the Lehigh River, you probably would see an eagle doing its fishing.

However, in April, May and beginning now through late September, many ospreys will migrate through our area. I watched a pair circling over the Lehigh River just this week near the cloverleaf section of the Lehigh at Palmerton.

The bald eagles and ospreys are not only birds that dive into the water or the water’s surface for fish. Belted kingfishers, a bit larger than blue jays, also dive into the water to catch fish, but much smaller ones.

They, too, like ospreys, can be seen hovering above the water, head down, and somehow maintaining the same spot despite the winds. They then dive head first into the water, and in once in a couple of attempts, spear a fish. I’ve also seen them perched on a limb overhanging a stream, and they dive from that perch.

Great blue herons, and great egrets (look for them now as they move in post-breeding fashion north from their breeding areas) will stalk the shallow waters, or walk a pond’s edge to spear an unwary bluegill or possibly a frog or eel. Unlike eagles and ospreys, both the kingfishers and heron/egrets will swallow their prey head first. This would avoid any of the spiny fins from gouging their throats as they swallow them.

I’ll report on some birds (and a mammal) that swim underwater to do their fishing. Look for that soon. The weather is getting a bit cooler, so now is a good time to remind you that wildlife is at its fittest now and the numbers are higher after the young have boosted the populations, so “get out there.”

Email Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com