She was anesthetized for closer examination and x-rays, and her wounds were cleaned and treated. The wildlife veterinarians at Tri-State are especially skilled with birds and treat more bald eagles than any center in our region. Kathy Clark and Doug Ely use a blanket to capture the grounded bald eagle.Ĭonservation Officers drove Eagle B/47 in a relay to Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research in Newark, Delaware, that day. She was found about two miles from a known eagle nest along the Great Egg Harbor River. It is likely that she has been part of this eagle recovery since 2008 when she would have been five years old and mature to nest. In contrast, we monitored 121 nesting pairs in 2012, and a record 165 young were produced. She was one of two young eagles from that nest that year, when there were just 35 nests in the state. These identified her as having been banded in a New Jersey nest in May, 2003, in Mannington, Salem County. This eagle was fitted with two leg bands: a color band reading B/47, and a silver band with the individual number 629-45852. With a short walk to the truck with the carrier, we set the eagle into the cage where it sat quietly, perhaps relieved to be in a dark, quiet place. It took two of us to make sure we had a good hold of the strong wings and legs, and to avoid being bitten as well. I rushed over to it, and after another careful approach, threw the blanket over the bird and secured it there. Once I got within five feet of the eagle, it suddenly jumped up into a short flight to my right, but crashed into branches and fell back to the ground about 50 feet away. As we got closer, we could see that the right eye was indeed impaired, so we were able to approach on the bird's blind side. Ely and I slowly approached, prepared with blankets to cover the bird once we got close enough. We loosely encircled the downed eagle and Lt. Ely and I quickly laid out the capture plan with six golf course staff, and were soon joined by Conservation Officers Craig James and Keith Fox. We met up at the remote section of the course, which was now snow covered. A closer look would reveal the right eye was injured. Through binoculars, he could see that something was wrong with the face. The bird had made a short flight off the fairway into open woods, but then remained grounded. Ely had arrived at the golf course and scoped out the eagle's situation. As much as we tried to rush to respond, everything seemed to move slowly: an unexpected snowstorm was quickly laying down 6-8 inches, making travel hazardous in the most southern counties.Īfter a quick stop at my Tuckahoe office to get an eagle-sized pet carrier and heavy-gauge gloves, I carefully negotiated the roads through Atlantic County. As I headed out to gather the necessary equipment, I called Conservation Officer Doug Ely, who has helped on other eagle rescues. The call, received by Kris Schantz of the Division's Endangered and Nongame Species Program, at home, was relayed to me, also still at home. On February 1, the grounds keepers at Hidden Creek Golf Club in Atlantic County called the NJ Department of Environmental Protection's Hotline (877-WARN-DEP) to report a bald eagle, injured and grounded, on a remote fairway on the Egg Harbor Township club. Golf course staff start work early in the morning, even in the middle of winter.
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