
iStockphoto / StefanoVenturi
Until a few years ago, it had never even occurred to me that American Bald Eagles could swim. One of my cousins shared a video of a Bald Eagle swimming to shore that he filmed up in The Adirondacks and he was able to get pretty close because he was in a kayak when he spotted the eagle.
It’s nuts. They swim like Michael Phelps with that crazy ass wingspan. They throw their broad wings out in a motion that looks very similar to what we know was the Breast Stroke.
It turns out that most of the population has either never seen an American Bald Eagle swim before nor have they considered that these eagles are capable of swimming. A clip shared on Twitter filmed at New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee shows a Bald Eagle swimming all out to the shore and people’s minds are blown.
Here’s the clip with reactions below:
🦅 Whoa! A bald eagle was spotted swimming to shore in Wolfeboro. Amazing! https://t.co/udTkenOeNS
📹: Tyler Blake / u local (upload here: https://t.co/bqKBGSxerF) pic.twitter.com/7jP9YnlRjP
— WMUR TV (@WMUR9) June 10, 2019
Here’s another random clip of a Bald Eagle swimming so you know this isn’t’ an isolated incident:
People’s mind holes are blown and rightfully so. A Bald Eagle swimming is a very unsettling sight to behold.
This is one of the most amazing things I've seen in ages. #lookedfake https://t.co/GZjaqjJlZv
— Johnna Miller (@Johnna_J_Miller) June 12, 2019
https://twitter.com/Kelper7/status/1138218300054392834
Weird that a bald eagle does the butterfly. 🤔
— Andrew Smith (@ASmithSales) June 10, 2019
https://twitter.com/jimmyniven1/status/1138211620994277376
As if there aren’t enough predators in the ocean we now have to worry about bald eagles. 😦
— DCSportsMark 🕞 (@DCSportsMark) June 10, 2019
— Chris B (@Chris_Blackey) June 11, 2019
I guess, based on this tweet, we’re led to believe that swimming Bald Eagles will be a commonplace sight of the future once this population EXPLODES in the future and Bald Eagles outnumber people:
According to @nhaudubon biologist Chris Martin, the population of New Hampshire's bald eagles — once on the state's threatened species list — is growing by about 10 percent per year, making it more likely to see them flying… or even swimming! 🦅🌊 https://t.co/Tf4ne2PwQH
— WMUR TV (@WMUR9) June 13, 2019
Here’s another clip of a Bald Eagle catching a fish and swimming it to shore:
I hope you’re all as blown away by the way these birds swim as I am. I mean, it makes perfect sense that they’d swim this way but I’m still shocked they don’t just flap their wings and fly out of the water like every other bird I’ve seen land in the water and I live on the water in Florida which means I see this shit literally all day long.
I live a quarter of a mile away from an Audobon Bird Sanctuary which means the lake in my backyard is swarmed with birds. I watch Ospreys fishing every day and never have I seen one of them get stuck in the water and have to swim to shore.