Fish Fight - Osprey And Eagle

Last evening, I was standing on my deck with a glass of wine when this Bald eagle came zooming out of the trees after this Osprey with it's evening supper. I don't know what kind of fish it had and my subjects were slightly far away for fantastic photos, but they'll do. This series of shots clearly captures the fish food fight. The Osprey won, by the way. It took for the cover of the trees with it's supper, and the eagle gave up. It went across the cove and landed in the top of a spruce tree to rest and I'm sure, to pout. I don't know what the numbers are, but my personal observations are that the eagles are not often successful with this approach to food acquisition. It takes an enormous amount of energy for them to zoom around acrobatically after the more agile osprey. Their best bet is to get the osprey to drop the fish where the eagle can get it, for example, on the rocks versus into the water. Usually, in my experience, the eagles don't keep after and osprey as this one did. They usually only try once and the Ospreys rocket straight for cover. It's a fascinating and magnificent event to witness. 

I took this a few years ago on the rocks in front of our house on Totman Cove. I have never understood why the Osprey had seaweed in it's talons. Did it think it could slap the eagle senseless with it and take back it's Striped bass dinner?