Eagles and Puppies and Pit Bulls, Oh My!

So, yesterday Drake I went swimming. That's not news. Ever since he followed two labs into the water about six weeks ago, we've gone swimming almost every day at noon.

Some days we have the lake to ourselves, and I let him off leash. Other days, now that it is warm, we have to share the lake, and I keep him on leash and we swim together. (I just get concerned about people overreacting about a pit bull running free.) Yesterday as we were headed down the trail to the beach, we ran into two teenagers. They were very attentive: "Is your dog friendly?""Yes, absolutely. He loves other dogs."

"Oh good." We saw the reason for their concern a few seconds later. A tiny black lab puppy came bounding around the curve in the trail. He was soaked, and the boys told me, rather proudly, that he'd just had his first swim. He and Drake had a friendly meeting (nose to nose, both tails flailing away, etc.), then Drake told me it was time to go swimming, and we did.

Drake loves other dogs so much that I wasn't sure he'd stay with me, so I kept him on leash for a while. We went swimming out to the center of the little cove, and then something in the air caught my eye.
It was one of the local eagles (there's a nest in the woods we visit most often), flying overhead with a small fish in its beak. "Eagles, Drake!" Drake dropped the tennis ball he was holding and starting swimming in a circle, looking for whatever had caught my eye.

Then something more caught my eye. The eagle was being followed by a crow, who was doing a little Top Gun action on him, trying to get the fish. The crow was diving bombing the eagle, so that the eagle had to turn its beak to one side to keep the fish safe.

I was stunned. The crow was enough smaller than the eagle that at first I thought it was an eaglet, but he wasn't backing down. The eagle flew in a big circle to try to shake him, and the crow hung on, coming at him from above, below, and both sides, trying to get that fish. "Look at that crow!" I yelled.

Eventually, I realized my yelling was freaking Drake out, and since I was standing on firm ground but he was swimming in water over his head, I calmed us down. I helped him float while the aerial battle played out. The eagle kept the fish, but the crow won my respect.