01/11/2007

Bald eagle ready to take flight again

It's one of four that's been rescued, rehabilitated

By PATRICK SULLIVAN

psullivan@record-eagle.com

Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump
Sky is expected to be released back into the wild on Sunday after having recovered from the West Nile virus at Wings of Wonder.

EMPIRE — Of the four eagles perched in a 100-foot long flight cage tucked into the woods near Empire, one will probably never go back to the wild, and two may be rehabilitated and eventually set free.

But one will soar again this weekend.

That juvenile bald eagle, a female named Sky, was rescued in August 2006 near Pellston by a Department of Natural Resources officer after someone noticed the eagle appeared ill.

The eagle is scheduled to be released at Traverse Bay Community School at 7224 Supply Road at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Rebecca Lessard, director of Wings of Wonder, a raptor rehabilitation center, said when the eagle arrived it showed symptoms of West Nile virus. The bird suffered seizures and lacked coordination. The mental incapacity meant it could not feed itself, she said.

"She actually jumped up onto the side of the truck” when the DNR officer arrived to rescue the bird, Lessard said. "If she hadn't been rescued, she would have starved to death.”

Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump
Sky, a bald eagle that’s just under a year old, flies past Ellie, another, more mature bald eagle, in their enclosure at Wings of Wonder in Empire.

Lessard said the bird initially was fed liquids with a syringe and a tube stuck down its throat into its stomach. As it recovered, the bird was fed cuts of quail or rat meat until it could eat a normal diet.

Sky spends her last days in captivity with three other eagles, two of which are mature and have developed the bald eagle's signature white head, and another juvenile.

One of the adults was found in June 2006 in the Upper Peninsula. Lessard said she suspects that bird was held in captivity illegally by someone who sold its feathers on the black market, where they can fetch hundreds of dollars.

Its head had been spray painted, perhaps because its captor didn't want the bird to be recognized as a bald eagle.

"They painted his head and they dumped him and he was starving to death,” Lessard said. "I don't know why people would do that.”

Lessard said she is hopeful that eagle will be able to be released when healthy feathers grow in. The eagle's existing feathers are not healthy because it was malnourished.

Another eagle, a 5-year-old, suffered an injury to its elbow. Lessard said she doesn't know whether it will be able to be released. The other juvenile suffered a fractured forearm that was not treated soon enough, and Lessard suspects the eagle will never be healthy enough to be released.