PHOTOS: Salem’s eagles squabble over fish

A fledgling bald eagle screams for attention as an adult bald eagle, with a fish clinched in it’s talons, swoops down to land in front of the hungry fledgling in Salem's Riverfront Park on Thursday, July 6, 2023. (Ron Cooper/Salem Reporter)

Salem’s resident bald eagles are again causing a spectacle, as the fledgling eagles are out of the nest and viewable from Riverfront Park.

Volunteers for the city monitor two eagle nests — one at Minto Brown Island Park, and one on Audubon Society land that’s visible from Riverfront Park. Two fledgling eagles have been visible on the river banks in recent days, drawing attention from park walkers, wildlife viewers and photographers.

Photographer Ron Cooper captured several eagle family moments Thursday.

A mature bald eagle stands back and watches as two fledgling eagles fight over a fish the adult had just delivered. The family quarrel was photographed from the walking path in Salem Riverfront Park Thursday, July 6, 2023. (Ron Cooper/Salem Reporter)
A fledgling bald eagle screams for attention as an adult bald eagle, with a fish clinched in it’s talons, swoops down to land in front of the hungry fledgling in Salem’s Riverfront Park on Thursday, July 6, 2023. (Ron Cooper/Salem Reporter)

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Photographer Ron Cooper and his wife Penny moved to Salem in 1969 to take a job as photographer at the Oregon Statesman (later the Statesman Journal). Their three children, Monica, Kimberly, and Christopher, attended and graduated from Salem public schools. Cooper retired from the Statesman Journal in 2001 but, has continued his passion for photography in many ways, including as a photographer for the Salem Reporter.

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