New hope for a young eagle

Scott Rando
Posted 4/26/17

A wildlife rehabilitator wears many hats during the course of rescuing and rehabilitating animals that find themselves sick or injured. A wildlife rehabilitator is part bush-whacker, part EMT, and …

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New hope for a young eagle

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A wildlife rehabilitator wears many hats during the course of rescuing and rehabilitating animals that find themselves sick or injured. A wildlife rehabilitator is part bush-whacker, part EMT, and part caregiver and occupational therapist, among other things. The optimal scenario for an animal found injured in the wild is “Rescue, Rehab and Release.” If the animal is found early enough and given proper treatment, and if all works well, it is released back into the wild fully healed. In reality, however, animals may not be found right away, or they have severe injuries that they would never fully recover from.


On the 22nd of July last year, a fledgling eagle was found on the ground near Route 97 in the Skinners Falls area; it was alive but unable to fly. It was a female, and she was found to have midline fractures of both the radius and ulna in its left wing. She probably incurred her injuries by flying into a path of a moving vehicle. Luckily, she was found soon after being injured, and she was turned over the Delaware Valley Raptor Center (DVRC).

 
The fledgling underwent surgery on the 25th of July, and pins were inserted into each fractured bone. There was hope for this bird; as the fractures were mid-line, they weren’t too close to the elbow or wrist joint, where calcification during the healing process could cause stiffness of either joint. After she had healed for some months, the DVRC staff performed some wing flexing to ensure the ligaments in the wing didn’t get too stiff. By November, she was flying a little bit in her flight enclosure, and by January, her flight skills looked pretty strong. As it was the middle of winter, it was decided to wait until spring before doing a release. 


On April 19, this young eagle, now a year old, underwent the last test that would tell if her left wing was strong enough to enable her to be returned to the wild: flying on a creance. A creance is a long cord attached to the jesses, or the leather leg bands placed on the bird. The idea of the creance is that you can see if the bird flies well for a distance and yet be able to retrieve the bird after the flight. This eagle did four flights on the first day, and on the first flight, she took out the entire warp of the 225-foot cord. She will be released sometime around the time you read this. 


After the last flight, Bill Streeter, director of the DVRC, remarked to me, “This is one of the fun parts of this job, having a bird come back from an injury to the point it can be returned to where it belongs, in the wild.”

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