Being so fortunate as to live where we do, the confluence of the Ottauquechee River and the Connecticut, we've witnessed on 2 occasions a swimming eagle, both times they had prey that was a bit too heavy to lift.  One episode the prey was a black duck.  I have many still shots of that escapade.  Mature eagle struggled for nearly 30 minutes in high spring waters to get the duck to shore on our lower lawn, only to have another mature and an immature fly in to challenge him for the duck once he got it to dry land.  There was quite a tussle between the swimmer and the immature, but the immature won out and had first dibs at duck lunch.  The second swimming escapade was a mature eagle with a large fish that he took to shore on the south end of Burnap's Island.  Once on sand the eagle hopped with bird in talons further up the beach to eat the fish.  We've had fabulous wild life viewing here in North Hartland.  ~m & m coutermarsh.