A couple of eagles

Before you ask, no, I did not have a camera with me.

I was on my way out to town on the bike. I noticed that the tide level was pretty high as I cycled down the road. And then I saw a large bird sitting on the tip of a rock peeking out of the water, just down the road embankment. When I looked over to take a closer look, I saw that it was a mature (i.e., with the white crown) bald eagle, just sitting there. I must have passed by not more than 20 feet or so from the bird.

As I went down just a few seconds more, I noticed someone with a camera taking pictures of something in the water. As I got closer I could see that there was something swimming. At first I thought it might be an otter or a seal. It was a dark brown and not quite large enough to be a sea lion.

As I got even closer, I discovered that it was a young eagle, swimming to shore. From what I understand, eagles, if they ever actually end up in the water, are unable to fly out due to the new weight of waterlogged feathers. So they have to paddle their way back to shore where they can dry themselves out.

This poor eagle apparently did not have a very good fishing outing today. It's hard to believe that it accidentally got itself soaked. More likely than not is that it saw a nice, BIG fish, grabbed it, and then it discovered the fish was a fighter and found itself getting dragged into the water. Fortunately this one looks to have survived this -- there were no orcas or sea lions around to make a meal of a nice, tasty eagle.

It gets me wondering: Are we that much different? In our greed and self-serving desires, do we ever grab onto something we can't handle and then find ourselves getting dragged down? I wonder...