America: Symbolism vs Realism

[voyager]

Got no eagles around here - Hawaii, but ...

Spent 35 years in various areas of AK.
Bald Eagles everywhere, especially in the Aleutians.
They'd winter there feeding on fish processors' effluvium.
When they replaced the old bait fish in the cold storage warehouse, we'd throw the old frozen fish out into the
water.
They'd swoop down and scoop the fish up while we threw fish for hours.
Not much to do with spare time in the Aleutians.

Used to sit on the deck of my condo in Anchorage watching the eagles perched in the trees.
Every once in a while one would swoop down and snag a cat or small dog.
I never kept pets in AK.

Which reminds me of the time I stopped for gas in Glennallen.
A motor-home with tourists had also stopped.
A gal with her small yappy dog and her husband got out.
An eagle swooped down, snagged the dog and flew away.
She screamed and hollered.
Her hubby looked as if he was pretty happy about it.

Almost forgot, in the Aleutians driving out an old dirt road along a narrow canyon, stopped to look at an eagles' nest with 2 young birds on the cliff wall across the small creek.
I stopped to take a look and was hit hard on my head.
I was too close to the nest and was attacked by a protective parent bird.

There, those are the highlights of my eagle stories.

EDIT:


Bald Eagles and Osprey are fish eagles.
Fish are their natural and preferred prey.
Never seen an Osprey do anything other than fish.
I have seen Bald Eagles take birds and small mamals.
They are noted for occasionally taking Dall Sheep lambs.

Gold Eagles are a land bird.
I've only seen them in AK's interior.
They feed on land animals, and probably on fish if the opportunity arises.