Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1903-07-13
FISHING OF THE BIRDS.

It is easy for a man abroad with rod
and line on some still, tree-fringed
lake to understand how the loon, the
helldiver, the kingfsher, and such
birds make living. They are al
expert anglers with their own peculiar
outfits and understand how TO use
them to perfection
The heIl-diver does not pretend 10
tackle anything but very small fishes,
minnows mostly, and it eats a good
all great divers. 1t thinks nothing of
going to the bottom Of lake fifty feet
deep, and when it gets after a small
bass or a perch or croppie that particu-
lar fish is in for a very unpleasant
three minutes. The loon catches and
eats fish all day, being almost an IN
falling pursuer and one OF the most de-
structive OF all birds which prey upon
fish life.
The kingfsher, small, active and
blue, can not swim a stroke, but it is
diver to a depth Of a foot and it
makes up in expertness what it lacks
in amphibiousness. Perched upon
branch which overhangs the water,
with its head turned TO one side and
its eye cooked like a parrots, it sees
everything which passes below and
darts downward at frequent intervals.
It is after surface fish, minnows,
clubs, dace and such things, seldom
capturing anything more than three
many things that it finds in the mud.
The loon is a powerful and fast
swimmer and one of the greatest Of
inches long. The kingfsher is sue
cessful about once IN three times,
which is a very good average for
non-water bird, and as it is very in
dustrious it gets plenty for itself and
its sitting mate and later for the young
in the nest among the sedges by the
lakes edge. A man who watches
small gulls flying and diving over a
lake will find that they do not aver
age more than one kill TO six dives
and the kingfsher has them clearly
Outclassed.
No angler, though, ever has under
stood how the great fsh-eagle gets
along. This huge bird, with a wing
spread Of six feet and a big body,
needs much food. Moreover, except
in late fall ard winter, it has always
a brood of squalling young that are
Unsuitable.
Both the male and the female fish
for the nest, but it is mystery how
they manage 10 obtain enough for
themselves, let alone the youngsters.
The fish-eagle can not swim; it can
not dive; it is slow OF fight; 1t can
not pick up anything with its beak.
The kingisher hits the water spear
bill downward like fash of blue and
white light, but the fish-eagle, ponder
Gus, cumbrous, and deliberative, has
to depend entirely upon its talons. 1t
flies slowly over the lake at height
of ten to twenty yards. Seeing a
fish near the surface it lowers itself
above it, drops its legs down for six
inches. and brings its long talons to-
gether in the effort to grasp.
While it is doing this its great wings
are pounding the air to keep it aloft.
Nobody knows what would happen if
it fell in. A more awkward take-a-
chance-anyhow fisherman does not
exist.
It would seem that any fish with an
atom Of sense would get out of the
way. since unquestionably plenty of
time is afforded. a bass idling on the
surface and seeing the great shadow
descending would easily shoot twenty
yards before the terrible talons were
let down.
In fact, the man who has seen a
.fshereagle catch a fish is rare, though
every angler has seen it try lots of
times. The eagle afteI one of these
attempts gets aloft awkwardly for 100
feet or so, then takes a perch on some
dead tree overlooking the water and
apparently thinks about il for awhile,
resolving to do better. Then il takes
wing and goes through its opera boufe
chase once more.
Eagles do catch fish, for now and
then about sunset one is seen winging
its way toward the nest with hand
some bass or pike in its claws, but
the prey must have been asleep when
taken. The fsh-eagle is a good dear
of a scavenger, and probably much OF
its sustenance is gained in cleaning up
dead fish.