Bald Eagles catches Salmon
 

Not great quality, but I managed to capture the video below while fishing this morning near Alton Bay


<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-ac7ovl68-4?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ac7ovl68-4

Good catch! (For both of you)

I didn't realize a salmon would be so close to the surface. Do you suppose it was struggling already?

What fish was it
 

Some Salmon & Rainbows will feed on the surface. Also I dont think we really know it was a salmon. Lots of different kinds of fish in the lake and the eagle won't care. Could have been healthy and surface feeding or hook wounded, or even near death.

It was a hook wounded Salmon

Great clip thanks. Not often you get to see it.

Question: Why are video clips these days cropped to show 1 narrow vertical slice in the middle of the entire frame that could be viewed?

In yours, 2/3 of the possible width of the clip was cropped out-I don't understand and I see it all the time.

HH

You're correct, you do see it all the time. As a photographer, I find it somewhat annoying especially when the many viewer video clips we see on the the news, for instance, are the same way. This is because everyone holds their iPhone vertically. And a "cropped" view is right; think of how much of the possible image is left out. I don't think I've ever seen anyone hold it horizontally, which is really a much more life-like, realistic way to view a video. I think I have finally gotten my wife to hold it that way if she's shooting a video of our grand daughter or something.

The eagles seem to have figured out which boats are trolling for salmon and that freshly released fish many times will float on the surface for a short time before swimming away. They are smart enough to watch for the easy meal. I have had this happen to me on Winni where I had an eagle pick up a released salmon in the prop wash and again a few weeks back on Sebago where I had the same thing happen. both times I was scrambling for my camera but couldn't get there in time. Great that you got the video.