Operation Bald Eagle

For a while we were told to keep it quiet, and I sat on the information that Bald Eagles were coming to our rehab center.  They didn't want crowds, especially with all the federal regulations, and with the crazys out there, the actual birds would have to be under lock and key.

Yesterday I decided to forgo sleeping in since I don't know how to do that anymore, and instead I went to the shelter to give my boss some hawk feather earrings I made.  I also collected some crickets for the cattle egret (which I am happy to see eating seven crickets at one sitting.  He didn't have an appetite for two weeks...so it was good to see him eat.)

When I got there, my boss came outside to meet me, after donning the earrings with a smile bigger than Christmas, her unbelievably big smile got even bigger as she said, "Are you ready?"  She leads me to the back pen where a beautiful eagle sat.  Such a pristine, beautiful bird, a symbol of such hope, lay battered on the ground.  It hurt my heart a little.  BUT, a wildlife vet all the way from Maryland came down bringing us supplies and instructions on the basics such as suturing.

The bird was found on a beach living on the dead things it could find there.  It lacked an eye and the wing needed stitches.  No one knows what happened to her.  The vet sedated her with a liquid from a vial and brought her out to the table.  It was important to sedate her, because her talons, in addition to being sharp can squeeze with 115 lbs of pressure (that Red Tailed Hawk that grabbed me a few posts before only grabs with 20-30 lbs of pressure....and we all know what she can do to a mouse.)

Once she was under, I was sent to get warm soapy water and some ointment.  I came back to see him pulling fatty scar tissue out of the wing wound.  Then I stood by her good wing and watched.  The wound was cleaned and sutured before the vet moved on to the eye.  As he cleaned around it, she started to stir...which required me to gentle restrain the good wing so that she wouldn't beat that one up.  At that moment, I touched a Bald Eagle.  The symbol of our nation and hopefully a future success story on how we can save a critter from extinction.  Whoa...life moment!

The talons are tricky work!

  The eye was completely gone, but the tear duct worked well enough to keep the area flushed.  So we left the eye as it was.  She will never be released because she will never be able to hunt with that eye.  Her depth perception will cause her to bang up more that just that wing.  AND thus begins our hunt, we need to find her a permanent home.  No zoo will ever take her since she is not "a pristine exhibit species" without the one eye.  So we would need a facility that wasn't interested in display but still has the proper permits.

Wish us luck!

(Ps. The reason I don't have to keep this a secret anymore is because for some reason a reporter from the local paper managed to pop-up during the operation.  The command to keep it quiet is out the door when the press arrives...haha)