Posted on 03/05/2021 10:37:54 PM PST by nickcarraway
Hikers and dog walkers along a Juneau trail on Monday spotted something unusual, an eagle hanging upside down in the trees. Although the eagle ultimately did not survive, its rescue led to a compassionate and painless end of life.
J.D. McComas says they were tipped off by Juneau resident Laurie Craig who was walking the Emergency Vehicle Access Road, commonly known as the airport dike trail. In the trees near the south end of the floatplane pond was what appeared to be an eagle hanging upside down like a bat.
At first, the eagle appeared dead. But then it moved and screeched a little.
“We don’t believe it had been in there for more than a day. But it had been there for quite a few hours, it seemed,” McComas said. “It was fairly distressed.”
McComas is a federal wildlife biologist. His job includes bird hazard mitigation at the Juneau International Airport, because if a seagull, raven or eagle hits a plane or gets sucked into a jet engine, then it could be a bad day for everyone.
Capital City Fire/Rescue arrives with a ladder truck to help with rescue of an eagle at Juneau International Airport March 1, 2021. (Photo courtesy Scott Rinkenberger) The fire department sent a ladder truck to the airport for the eagle in the tree.
Kathy Benner of the Juneau Raptor Center also arrived with some sheets and tips on handling a large raptor.
“He was amazing,” Benner said. “I mean, that bird was at least 70 feet up. So, it was a long walk for him.”
“It was precarious to say the least,” McComas recalled. “I’m slightly afraid of heights”.
McComas was clipped to the ladder. But he said it was still tricky to maintain balance, wrap the eagle with a sheet, and free the eagle’s leg from the fork of a branch.
“I’m guessing the way it looked, it had went to leave his perch, and got its body weight out in front of it,” McComas said. “And that kept his leg pinned in between that fork and hanging upside down.”
And then there was McComas’ difficult climb back down the long ladder.
“You’re holding the bird tucked under one arm sort of like a football, and keeping three points of contact on the way down,” McComas remembers. “It was a slow, slow descent.”
Back at the Juneau Raptor Center, Benner said they put the eagle in a dog kennel with shredded paper and a towel as a pillow for its head. They gave it some fluids and pain medication.
“The bird was in pain,” Benner said. “He was crying out.”
Benner said the male eagle showed signs that it had spent most of its time recently on the ground, but also it had difficulty standing. For the right leg that was caught in the branches, X-rays showed signs of another older injury like a previous break that didn’t heal properly. The left leg was swollen, too.
“The bird’s range of motion was impaired,” Benner said. “It was contributing to this bird not being able to hunt and catch food.”
Benner said even before it found itself stuck in a tree, it was starving. So, they euthanized the eagle or put it to sleep.
“So if he hadn’t been rescued, he could still be up there, for all we know, dying a very slow painful death,” Benner said.
She said the eagle will be sent down to a federal facility for permanent cold storage, which is routine for a protected species.
Mother Nature is beautiful, but she is one cold hearted bitch.
Sad 😢
Maybe its the article, but it doesn’t seemlike the bird had like a fish hook gagging him. They make more of an effort trying to save sea turtles, or birds in oil slicks than they did this eagle.
I was quite surprised on how quickly they gave up on this Eagle considering it was a fighter.
It should have been given a chance to heal and maybe been returned to the Wild.
I’ve seen birds in worse condition make it....
why am I not surprised there is a federal facility to permanently keep bald eagles on ice. More patriotic than most wastes of money I suppose.
I was thinking they should’ve tried harder.
"For a protected species".
It was taken off the Endangered list at least five/ten years ago.
I am thinking a 22 bullet or a 12ga round to the head. As it was hanging there would of saved every one a lot of time and money.
Eagles are really not that rare.
Before you get flamed too much - I’ll agree with you. Although it is no-doubt illegal for anybody to shoot an eagle - even if it were to end it’s suffering.
A neighbor of ours had a squirrel fall from a tree and it was injured. She asked for a box so I gave her one and went over to get the squirrel into the box. I would have just put it out of it’s misery.
The lady was going to take the squirrel to the animal rescue place. But she was going to have to take the bus as her husband had the car and her friend wasn’t around. (She was angling for a ride from me).
“We’ll good luck!”
Somebody (maybe a few somebodies) gets paid to make sure it stays frozen. I suppose they could clone it one day. But’s the a bunch of money till then.
Yeah, the usually try hard to recover birds. I doubt they’d rerelease it even if it made a recovery. A feature attraction for a wildlife sanctuary if it made it.
“A neighbor of ours had a squirrel fall from a tree and it was injured. She asked for a box so I gave her one and went over to get the squirrel into the box. I would have just put it out of it’s misery.”
A few years back a lefty neighbor caught a feral cat, and being such they are extremely wild and dangerous. They had it caged, no one could put their hand in the cage for fear of being scratched or bitten. It’s just the nature of a wild cat.
They wanted to save it, the nearest animal shelter was 175 miles away, they drove it there only to have it put down.
I personally would have shot it, or let it go. Wild cats up here winter kill.
We were able to tame 2 feral kittens with food and kindness.
We were unable to house train them so they went off to live on a farm.
Saw my first Eagle here in NY in 71 years.
I looked it up and I guess they are not all that uncommon in NY. Well, so they SAY, but I had never seen one before.
It was AMAZING to see it swoop up and away right in front of my car. At first I expected it to be a hawk as we have many of those, but it was too big to be a hawk and had that unmistakable white head. (about a 1/4 mile from my house on my road).
We’ve also trained feral kittens. One was outside freezing in a blizzard. I picked him up, put him in the bathtub with warm milk and food.
The cat in my previous story was an adult.
But no one cares when they are chopped up in a windmill blade.
Sounds like they missed the window when their brains could form the proper habit. I remember watching one of my mama cats litter train her babies. It started as soon as they could master climbing into the box. If they played around with the litter instead of getting down to business, or got in the litterbox but stuck their butts outside the box to do their business, she would swat them; but if they did it right she would purr and lick their heads. I think humans call this "operant conditioning."
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