The Bald Eagle (a true story)

[Leigh Ayers]

Date: Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 9:29 PM

Tonight I got a phone call from the Carolina Raptor Center, a non-profit rehab center for injured birds of prey. I was told that a caller from Fort Mill has an injured juvenile bald eagle on his property. I was skeptical that a bald eagle has come this far north up the Catawba River. So I wrote down the address and phone number and called this guy Paul. When I got there I had to drive another 1/2 mile from his house down to the river. Sure enough, there was an immature bald eagle sitting on the bank of the river in a
section of tree limbs. Paul told me that when he saw it, it was originally on land and his dogs scared him to the edge of the river. The bird hopped but couldn't fly. Paul said he walked right up to it and it didn't move so he knew it was hurt.
Well I thought about how I was going to go about catching this eagle. I have been a transport volunteer for the raptor center for almost ten years, but this was my first eagle capture. I planned to get to the waters edge and drive it back up the bank. I barely stepped down the bank when the eagle jumped into the river. Fifteen feet away from the bank was a strong current and sure enough he got swept into the current. Paul said he had a boat and he would go get it. By the time he got back the bird was out of sight. We got his two-seater plastic boat into the river, it has a trolling motor on it. We went down the river checking the bank as we went but we had to stop because there were strong rapids ahead. I was hoping to find the eagle on a bank, but it just didn't happen. We turned around and started back up the river and realized this trolling motor was not going to get us back. We tried going up Sugar Creek but we were blocked by a fallen tree and debris. We went back out to the river and tried again staying as close to shore as possible. Well when it was all said and done we were stuck on the side of the Catawba river for about an hour. We had about 30 minutes of day light left. Paul and I talked about our options and 911 was the last thing we wanted to do. He didn't know anybody we could call, I didn't either. Spending the night out there was not going to be fun. Paul suggested that we try that creek again and pull the boat out and around the tree if we had to. With limited light left to try we headed "up the creek". We pulled the boat over the tree and dead limbs and we were able to get back to where we started. We got the boat loaded back onto the trailer and got out of the woods. I got home about 3 hrs after my adventure started. Paul said he would take his kayak down the river tomorrow to see if the eagle made it to a sandbar or rocks. I pray he did, but I don't think so. I am not sure I could have done anything different. You can't predict what a wild bird is going to do. I am a little bummed out, what a beautiful bird, and so few are in this area. Maybe I'll get a call tomorrow and I can try to redeem myself.

The next day I rescued a goat that had his head stuck through a wire fence and could not get free. Today I transported a very fiesty red-shouldered hawk to the raptor center. It had been hit by a car in Lancaster county, SC

Leigh

[Leigh Ayers]

No Carol, I never heard anything else about it.

[Carol Buie-Jackson]

You tried your best! Did you ever hear anything back on the eagle? Hopefully he made it to shore somewhere. Its amazing the situations that wildlife enthusiasts will get themselves into for the sake of the wildlife we love. Thanks for trying!