WATCH: A wild encounter with a pair of entangled eagles has left a Bowser photographer injured but awed by what happened Friday. As Skye Ryan reports, it was a once in a lifetime run in that Lisa Bell is thrilled to share, but still shocked happened to her.
Lisa Bell is bruised and bandaged but has one wild story to tell, after being hit by a pair of mating bald eagles that she says plunged from midair in a matter of seconds.
“They connected and came down,” said Lisa Bell, who has been photographing wildlife for 20 years.
“I’m really lucky. It could have been a whole lot worse… I mean what are the odds you’re sitting at the table and you’re going to have eagles drop in your lap.”
“I was having a hard time believing it until I saw her bleeding,” said Bell’s friend Michelle Bailey.
“And she was like ‘they fell on me’. I was like what?.”
It happened in Bowser Friday when on a cliff overlooking the ocean nature literally crashed into her lap.
“Doctor came in and said I just heard eagles fell in your lap and I went yup,” said Bell.
“He said, he’d never heard that one before, haha,” she laughed.
The amateur photographer was snapping photos of the sky full of eagles when this pair locked talons in their mating ritual and plummeted downward.
Before she knew it she says they’d made full body contact with her and left her knocked down and in shock on the ground.
“I still had my camera but I had some injuries,” said Bell.
“How quickly did all this happen?” CHEK News asked Bell.
“In a split second,” she responded.
“I mean once they lock up there it doesn’t take them no time to get down…. so it was a little scary, and I was shaking after that and she was shaking already so.
“It was like something bounced off my chest and it was so fast,” said Bell.
When she came to, the eagles were gone and she realized her neck had been punctured.
So she was rushed to hospital and remarkably released with only minor injuries and one huge tale to tell.
“I’m gonna tell my grandchildren this story,” said Bell.
“And my grandchildren are going to tell their children this story.”
Despite her injuries, the collision hasn’t scared her off a bit. She was already back out shooting just a day after, to snap her next great shot.
Skye Ryan
