Fighting over Salmon

In today's eagle photo you can see what all the fuss is about with the eagles in Haines, Alaska.  There is a late run of Chum Salmon that spawn in the Chilkat River and as everyone knows, after salmon spawn they die.  The Chilkat River is a very braided river with a lot of shallows and the dying fish wallowing in the shallows make easy pickings for the eagles.  We saw a lot of fish get devoured by eagles during our week in Haines.  Believe me, with half a dozen eagles munching on a salmon, it doesn't very long for that salmon to disappear.  It seems more often than not that they eat the body of the salmon first and leave the head for last.  Quite frequently there is a fight over who gets the head.  Many times we saw the victorious eagle take flight with the head to finish eating it from the relative safety of a perch in a tree.  This photo shows one eagle chasing another eagle away in an attempt to make off with the fish head.