Photo by Andy Molloy
Sibling immature eagles brawl over a fish last summer on the Kennebec River.

Neil Stottler, of Farmingdale, nailed the bird by the claw.

He identified the claws in last week's photo as belonging to an osprey.

Bald Eagles, particularly younger birds, have a yellow hew on the claw. Fish Hawks are white and black.

Wee Stottler also resides along the Kennebec River. He can watch the avian peak of the alewife migration over the next few weeks from the shore. Which is a superior spot to experience the next spectacle to descend upon the river.

Fledgling eagles, ospreys and Kingfishers will be joining the fray over the next few weeks.

A previous post asked species was the most efficient airborne angler.

Chris Del Plato claims Kingfishers possess the best diving skills.

"By my observations (mostly on Cobbossee)," Del Plato writes, "Kingfishers are the most efficient - though eagles seem fairly close, ospreys the least. I've seen some fairly ineffective ospreys miss about 8 or so times in a row, expending a lot of energy in the process (circle, dive, plunge, takeoff, shake/dry, and repeat. Eagles make it look quite effortless, almost plucking fish from the water."

Soon the winged babes of each species will be crashing and splashing as they adapt to feeding themselves. But I must concur with Del Plato. Remarkably, within a month, most of the Kingfishers will be able at hunt beneath the surface after plunging from the sky.

The ospreys learn how to snatch a meal by the fall migration.

The immature eagles, solid black and towering over their parents, appear most skilled at scavenging.