Ever seen 40 bald eagles flocking together in the same field?

North Alabama photographer Pat Stewart has, and he documented the phenomenon Friday in a series of photos that have been shared thousands of times on Facebook.

Stewart told AL.com he counted 30 bald eagles on the ground and at least 10 more in the trees and in the air around a small field in Madison County, about 15 miles from Lake Guntersville, a known bald eagle hotspot. He said the nearby Flint River had flooded the field and that when the waters receded, it left a “buffet” of stranded fish for the eagles to scoop up.

“These eagles went nuts,” Stewart said. “They just started flying in and it’s a free meal. They were just swarming out there.”

Stewart, who does nature and other kinds of photography as a side gig, said he’s been shooting photos of a pair of bald eagles nesting in the area for about five years, but got a call from a friend on Friday to go look at the field. Stewart said he took the photos from the side of the road, about 300 yards away because the field is private property.

It’s the kind of sighting most people don’t associate with Alabama, but is possible here.

“Welcome to Alaska….I mean Owens Cross Roads, AL.,” Stewart said in his Facebook post. “Receding water in a flooded field provided over THIRTY bald eagles a buffet of fish. It is quite the site to see, however, it’s over 300 yards away. Oh, then there is the regular nesting pair across the street in a tree.”

Stewart he’d seen probably a dozen bald eagles together in Alabama before, usually at large dams, where stunned fish can be easy pickings for the avian predators. But Friday’s experience was a cut above.

“It was definitely an anomaly,” he said Sunday.