Loons 1, eagle 0

Published 12:53 pm Wednesday, July 6, 2011

One of the things I like best about fly fishing is it takes me to some of the most beautiful places on earth.

And you get to enjoy that scenery and see a lot of wildlife.

That was certainly the case on my recent trip to British Columbia, where I saw a lot of eagles, osprey, loons, and

deer.

And I saw one of brutal battles — between an eagle and a pair of loons — that I’ve ever seen.

I was in my pontoon boat, and I didn’t carry my camera because I was worried about dunking it. Big mistake.

Here’s what I saw.

A pair of loons, which are incredibly big and beautiful birds, where swimming on Fawn Lake, with one carrying two babies on its back that I was told hatched out a couple weeks ago.

The loons started making a lot of weird calls. They must have seen a bald eagle, because a couple minutes later one swooped down with talons extended and tried to snatch a baby off the loon’s back.

It missed.

The eagle came dive bombing back and went completely into the water this time like an osprey, trying to again snatch one of the babies. But they dove under.

The eagle’s body was completely submerged, with just its head and wings above water.

The adult loons both went on the attack and were stabbing the eagle with their beaks so violently that the eagle started swimming to shore, using its wings like a human would do the breast stroke.

The loons kept wailing on it until it was clear it was leaving and had abandoned the attack.

Then they started calling for their babies. One showed up and popped on its parent’s back. A minute later, the second climbed aboard the other parent.

The family swam away down the lake.

The eagle, meanwhile was still limping slowly to shore. It climbed out of the water, shook itself off and flew to a tree.

There, it stood at the tiptop, holding its wings extended in the air and letting them dry for about a half hour as it surveyed the lake.

It found a dead fish floating on the surface and flew to it, grabbing it and flying back to the tree for a meal.

I talked to a Canadian about the event because I would never have amagined the loons could be so fearless and so vicious. They beat the tar out of the eagle and it literally swam off with its tail beneath its legs.

The guy told me its not unusual for loons to have four babies and that they are lucky to wind up with only one still alive at summer’s end.

At Corbett Lake, I enjoyed watching a deer come down for a drink and they easily leap over a high fence and he’s make his way into the foothills. I did have my camera that day and I shot a picture of a loon on Corbett, not one of the loons that had attacked the eagle.