Joe Hank
Retired Wanderer
My wife and I are retired. We spent four weeks in West Yellowstone this year (late May through late June). We spent a lot of time in the Madison Valley of Yellowstone National Park. We frequently stopped to watch the Bald Eagle nest about a mile west of Seven Mile Bridge. The nest had a pair of adults and two young that we saw.
Anyway, one evening just before sunset, we stopped on Riverside Drive next to the Madison River to look at a Western Tanager we had just seen. Suddenly we were surrounded by Tanagers. There must have been 25 or 30 of them in their brilliant colors. We followed them down the road for a hundred feet or so, thoroughly enjoying ourselves and this magnificent find. My wife looked towards the river and told me there was an adult Bald Eagle on the water. I looked and sure enough there was an eagle actually on the water flapping one wing against the water and trying to work its way over to the shore. When we first saw it, it was about 20 feet offshore in water about three feet deep. It flopped and hopped for several seconds and finally managed to wade on shore about 15 feet from us. It looked at us and apparently decided it should be somewhere else. It took flight in a wobbly way and flew across the river to the closet tree and landed. Once while this eagle was flopping in the river, a second adult Bald Eagle flew close overhead in a tight circle and then flew to the other side of the river. The wet eagle landed about 30 feet from the dry eagle. We looked at the eagle with our binoculars and it reminded me of looking at a wet cat. The dry eagle flew off in a couple minutes. The wet eagle was still there when we left 10 minutes later. Unfortunately, we had left our vehicle with binoculars but no camera, so I did not get a picture of the swimming eagle. The only thing we could figure is that it was a very windy day with hard gusts and the eagle must have been trying to catch a fish and a wind gust caused his wing to hit the water and he couldn't recover.
The two eagles must have been the pair from the nest, because we did not see any other eagles in the Madison Valley during the four weeks we were there.
Anyway, our short drive just to check out the birds right before sunset gave us two great memories - the tanagers and the swimming eagle.
Anyway, one evening just before sunset, we stopped on Riverside Drive next to the Madison River to look at a Western Tanager we had just seen. Suddenly we were surrounded by Tanagers. There must have been 25 or 30 of them in their brilliant colors. We followed them down the road for a hundred feet or so, thoroughly enjoying ourselves and this magnificent find. My wife looked towards the river and told me there was an adult Bald Eagle on the water. I looked and sure enough there was an eagle actually on the water flapping one wing against the water and trying to work its way over to the shore. When we first saw it, it was about 20 feet offshore in water about three feet deep. It flopped and hopped for several seconds and finally managed to wade on shore about 15 feet from us. It looked at us and apparently decided it should be somewhere else. It took flight in a wobbly way and flew across the river to the closet tree and landed. Once while this eagle was flopping in the river, a second adult Bald Eagle flew close overhead in a tight circle and then flew to the other side of the river. The wet eagle landed about 30 feet from the dry eagle. We looked at the eagle with our binoculars and it reminded me of looking at a wet cat. The dry eagle flew off in a couple minutes. The wet eagle was still there when we left 10 minutes later. Unfortunately, we had left our vehicle with binoculars but no camera, so I did not get a picture of the swimming eagle. The only thing we could figure is that it was a very windy day with hard gusts and the eagle must have been trying to catch a fish and a wind gust caused his wing to hit the water and he couldn't recover.
The two eagles must have been the pair from the nest, because we did not see any other eagles in the Madison Valley during the four weeks we were there.
Anyway, our short drive just to check out the birds right before sunset gave us two great memories - the tanagers and the swimming eagle.
