Sea Eagles

The excitement began almost immediately with the deckhands tossing bread into the water which quickly attracted gulls and then sea eagles. I took a lot of photos but then sat back and enjoyed the scene. I saw quite a few gull vs gull food fights as well as a few eagle vs eagle. Not so much gull vs eagle maybe because the gulls may have realized such a fight was sure to be a losing proposition.

In the middle of our “safari,” the  MS Orca motored into a very narrow fjord, Trollenfjord, before turning around and continuing the journey towards Solevar, our eventual docking point.

The deck hands wore insulated suits and heavy gloves to handle the food for the birds. This was very similar to what deckhands wore in Alaska while on the water. The gulls and the eagles both have long legs with dexterous toes enabling them to quickly grab the bread/fish from the water.

The fish they used was frozen and appeared to be the length of their hands. It took considerable strength to cut through the fish or at least make an indentation allowing them to crack it in half before hurling it far into the water. A handy table was attached to the railing giving them the perfect platform to prepare and serve this bird buffet.