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Rescued Eagles Take Flight
Three Bald Eagles released at Mason Neck State Park.
By Gerald A. Fill
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Three rehabilitated, rescued eagles were released into the wild Saturday before more than 300 people at Mason Neck State Park.
The brown feathered first of year birds — they don’t acquire their classic photogenic white head until they reach five years old — are "early jumpers," according to Edward Clark, Jr., president of the Virginia Wildlife Center. They left the nest earlier than they should have and would not have survived if not for alert rescuers who brought the birds into the Virginia Wildlife Center located in Waynesboro, Va. for medical care and rehabilitation.
According to the center’s literature, the Wildlife Center was founded in 1982 and "is the nation’s leading teaching and research hospital for native wildlife." It treats native wildlife at no charge. In 2007 it rescued 29 Bald Eagles; in 2008 36 Bald eagles were rescued. According to Clark there are 16 active nesting pairs of Bald Eagles in the north Potomac River region — the highest number ever recorded for the area. Occasionally one can observe an adult pair of Bald eagles roosting by a nest at the edge of the Bell Haven country club golf course off the western side of the Mt. Vernon Parkway by Dyke Marsh.
U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, who attended the event, called the release very special, and in brief remarks characterized the birds as our national "symbol of American strength."
Asked what the release of the three Bald eagles meant to the Mason Neck Park, J.A. Lowery, park manager, said, "This represents 30 years of effort by many citizens and the government; it is an incredible moment in the life of the park." One rescuer, Sarah Allison, who traveled from Fredericksburg to witness the release, said she found her stressed young eagle at a Girl Scout camp. She knew to take it to a raptor rescue site that in turn transported the stressed-out bird to the Wildlife Center. "I am ecstatic about the release of the bird," she said.
For some a surprise and special guest in attendance was the chief of the Monacan Indian Nation. Chief Kenneth W. Branham, along with fellow Appomatock Indian, Ronnie Durie, traveled from Lynchburg to witness the release. Branham recalled to those in attendance that his tribe lived in Virginia before anyone and that the Bald Eagle has always been a very important aspect of Indian culture and is considered sacred. He welcomed the assemblage to the event and to his native land.
One person not at this historic occasion was the late Elizabeth Hartwell, a longstanding resident of Mt. Vernon and recognized for her persistent leadership over many years in preserving the Mason Neck area as a wildlife refuge. The refuge is named the Elizabeth Hartwell National Wildlife Refuge in recognition of her efforts. Her son, Rob Hartwell, who could not make the event had this to say in an interview earlier in the week: "If my mother were here she would be very gratified and proud to have played a role in preserving this habitat to the point of making it an attractive Bald Eagle release site. However, in typical fashion she would also be concerned about complacency and that recent cuts in program funding are delaying efforts to prevent soil erosion at the Mason Neck shoreline, and cuts in funding that will hold up other maintenance among projects."
Asked to state the long-term threats still facing the Mason Neck refuge Hartwell said, "The overriding threat to the preservation of Mason Neck, as it was in my mother’s lifetime, remains encroachment by developers. If sewage service is brought into the region, there could be as many as 300-400 homes built in the area. That would be a distinct threat to the pristine nature of Mason Neck Park which is so essential to the kind of habitat required of Bald Eagles. So long as sewage is not brought into the Mason Neck area those homes cannot be built. Ed Clark could have released the three eagles elsewhere in Virginia; he chose Mason Neck because it is one of the best, if not the best places for Bald Eagle habitat in the State. We should all want to keep it that way."
Hartwell is the founder of the Elizabeth Hartwell Educational Foundation, which provides scholarship opportunities to students studying environmental protection and conservation.
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Ed Clark Jr., president of The Wildlife Center of Virginia, holds one of the three young eagles that are to be released back into the state park on Saturday afternoon.
Ed Clark holds Eagle #09-0856 while his brother Joel affixes an identifying marker band around one of the birds claws. The band is large enough the eagle’s claw will not be injured by it.
Eagle #09-0856 takes flight.
Wildlife Center executive vice president Randy Huwa.
The Three Eagles
According to the Wildlife Center of Virginia: Animals admitted to the center are given sequential patient numbers — in the order in which they are admitted. Patient #09-0856 was the 856th patient admitted to the center during 2009. Thus far in 2009, the center has admitted almost 1,800 patients.
* #09-0856. This eagle was rescued from its nest, toppled by a storm near the Possum Point Power Station in Prince William County. The bird, the smallest and weakest of three nestlings, was rescued by Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries eagle biologist Jeff Cooper and admitted to the Center on May 27.
Upon admission, the eagle was thin and dehydrated, had a fractured left wing, and had trachial worms. The bird was treated with antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, fluids, and pain medication. On May 31, Center veterinarians operated on the bird and successfully pinned the fracture of the left wing.
These pins were removed on June 12. The bird has been moved to progressively larger outdoor flight pens at the Wildlife Center and demonstrated that it was ready for return to the wild.
* #09-1091. This eagle was found, on the ground near its nest and unable to fly, near the Coles Trip Girl Scout Camp near Brooke in Stafford County. The location is along Aquia Creek near the Potomac River. The eagle was rescued by U.S. Fish and Wildlife agent Stacie Allison, Sara Allison, Michelle Long, and Daniel Long. After its rescue, the eagle was first taken to area wildlife rehabilitator Kent Knowles.
The eagle was admitted to the Wildlife Center on June 9. Upon admission, the eagle was thin; the Center veterinary staff found no broken bones and two old scabs on the bird’s legs [likely puncture wounds from siblings].
The young eagle spent time in the Center’s outdoor flight pens and demonstrated that it is now ready for return to the wild.
* #09-1148. This Bald Eagle was first seen during the week of June 8 on the ground near its nest along the Pamunkey River in New Kent County. It had a slight droop in its right wing and was unable to fly. Wildlife rehabilitators Barb Rondeau and Amber Kimmich rescued the bird and provided preliminary treatment; the eagle was transported to the Wildlife Center on June 13 by volunteers Barbara Monaghan and Mike Fowler.
Upon admission, the eagle was bright and alert. Radiographs found no fractures; blood tests results, including a test for exposure to lead, were all within normal ranges. The eagle was found to have parasites in its gastrointestinal tract — a common issue. The bird also had some damaged tail feathers. The bird was treated for parasites and with an anti-inflammatory drug.
Like the other two eagles released on July 25, #09-1148 "graduated" through a series of progressively larger outdoor flight pens at the Center. All three shared one of the Center’s largest flight pens; like its pen-mates, #09-1148 demonstrated to the Center’s rehabilitation and veterinary staff that it was now ready for release to the wild.
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