A Bald Eagle Went Fishing at Lake Pflugerville… and Got More Than It Expected

This video continues my March 1, 2026 morning at Lake Pflugerville in Central Texas, right after the Crested Caracara encounter near the beach. I was still on Pier 1, giving my aching arms a rest, when a Bald Eagle flew past the apartments near the southeast corner of the lake. I expected the usual quick flyby, so I started taking as many shots as I could while I had the chance. But then - the eagle parachuted down toward the exposed lake bed right in front of me and landed. That was unexpected enough. But once it touched down, the eagle found out that the mud was much stickier than it looked. It repeatedly stared down at its toes, lifted and stamped its feet, seeming a bit distressed by the mud squelching between its toes. Purple Martins were calling loudly from their nest nearby while gulls gathered farther down the shore made occasional forays to annoy the eagle. Eventually, I had to lower the camera to rest again, and in that brief moment, I missed the eagle catching a fish. I did manage to capture a few shots of the takeoff, followed by video of the eagle carrying its catch away. It wasn’t as clear as I would have liked, but the moment was unforgettable. Nearby an Eastern Phoebe caught its own breakfast, a Great Egret glided past, and a Cooper’s Hawk soared high overhead, while shorebirds continued exploring their strange new feeding ground. The low water also exposed a surprising assortment of lost and littered human objects across the dry lake bed, and the City of Pflugerville sponsored a Lake Cleanup Day while so much of it was accessible. This occurred during the Stage 3 water emergency following a pipeline failure affecting Lake Pflugerville at the time. Everything in this video is unstaged and was recorded as it happened. Species observed in this video include: Bald Eagle Purple Martin Ring-billed Gull Greater Yellowlegs Killdeer Red-winged Blackbird Great Egret Mourning Dove Eastern Phoebe Cooper’s Hawk Yellow-rumped Warbler eBird checklist for this observation: https://ebird.org/checklist/S305048053 After the eagle disappeared with its catch, I continued around the lake to see what other wonders this unusual morning might reveal. The more we see things like this, the harder it is to believe it could all just be an accident. Let’s see what God shows us next.