Decorah eaglet in trouble
 

First there's the dilemma of the Cornell hawk fledgling, now one of the Decorah babies is in trouble. Yesterday, Decorah police were called to the road near the nest. A young eagle was in the road and wouldn't move. Before the police even got there the public was directing traffic around it. Bob Anderson, director of the Raptor Resource Project and and driving force behind all we see on the eagle's website, was called. He managed to chase the bird into the woods and capture it.

The fact that it did not fly is very concerning.

Chat on the cam website is still open and busy, but if you're not a member, here's the link to the message board forum:
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Bob is asking the public to help identify which baby this is. Camera viewers know the eaglets very well!

I hope it turns out okay... Sometimes they have West Nile Virus.
We had that in upper Michigan in recent years.

Thanks for the update!

Good and bad news. Yesterday's captured eaglet was released this morning, but another was found with a broken wing. This is unofficial info that I read on their message board (link above).

I haven't been following..... are these fledging? Or still too young yet?

About 3 yrs ago the Catalina eagles in Calif...were attacked by a golden eagle who flew over them and knocked them right out of the nest. The camera cam captured this ....it was thunderous and very fast. I happened to see it that day! I can't find it on YouTube... but there are other golden eagle videos of goldens attacking deer, wild cats, and other large animals.

The chicks at Catalina were saved and returned to the nest, and they were pretty large when it happened.

These are fledglings, MrsD. The 1st 2 babies were hatched on consecutive days and fledged on the same day, at the proper time in life. The 3rd baby hatched 3 or 4 days later, didn't "wingercise" like it should, and may have not been ready to fledge when it did.

Speculation is that it was lonely, or sick of the gnats.

Confirmation now, from RRP, the 1st captured fledgling is believed to be D20, believed to be female (by beak measurement), and is in good enough condition to be outfitted with a transmitter and released this afternoon.

No word yet on 2nd, injured, captured bird other than it is now with SOAR (Saving Our Avian Resources).

Still no sighting of 3rd fledgling, but it is assumed it is fine and being cared for by the parents.

Surgery on the broken wing is scheduled for Wednesday (24th).

Sparky,
Thanks for the updates.

A broken wing sounds bad. I hope the poor bird is OK after surgery.
I don't know how well they would heal with an injury like that.
Rehab must take ages.

Poor eaglet and E3 RTH. ugh

You're welcome, Lara. Birds have been rehabilitated and released after such injuries and surgeries. It does take a few months, though, I'm sure.

From SOAR's FB page:
"We will have to wait for the surgery and time for healing to know if this Eagle will be able to be released. His wing will be immobilized for 3-4 weeks to heal, then another 2-4 weeks in ICU with limited movement. Then he will be moved to the flight pens for exercise and muscle training. So it will be a long time. We have some wonderful foster Eagle parents and some other Eagle patients he can hang out with while he gains his strength. Please note - We still do not know the outcome for this bird. We have to wait and see how the healing goes along with everyone else! "

After all the sad events regarding the eagles and the hawks lately, I had a good experience just now.

After reading your last post, I went down to the beach.

There are whales migrating north past where I live and the surf is really flat this morning so I thought it was a great opportunity.

I didn't see any whales yet today, but I did see a large bird sitting on a branch on the cliff face very close.

There was a mother and her two young boys near me and we were talking about the whales and things. They were checking for the whales before going to school. I told them there was a beautiful bird but I wasn't sure if it was a whistling kite or a sea hawk. (osprey)

The little boy just looked at me and said "It's an Osprey". He was only about 6 years of age. His Mum said that was their school mascot. :)