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Originally Posted by tis
The eagles are beautiful but it is possible that they stole one of the baby loon chicks in Winter Harbor this summer. They were seen flying overhead after one of the babies disappeared.
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My experience with watching Bald Eagles here and elsewhere, is that they aren't likely to take a baby Loon chick. A smaller hawk or snapping turtle is the more likely predator, especially where there is a lot of Jet-Ski activity.
There is a popular painting of just such an encounter which could have influenced your observations; however, it is a fanciful painting.
It depicts two adult loons in a stressed pose, protecting their young on the nest from an approaching Bald Eagle. If I could recall the painting more accurately, they may have even been standing upright—something that adult Loons can't do. Loon chicks (Loonlings?) don't hang around their nest very long, either.
Eagles are generally lazy feeders, will feed on carrion, and would sooner pick a dead fish from the lake's surface or shoreline than conduct a hunt.
That said, I've witnessed a Bald Eagle's very sophisticated hunt on a large diving duck that extended over two days. That account, along with another account that suggests that Bald Eagles prefer a prey large enough to be worth the effort, was written to this forum a few years ago.