Trapped Bald Eagle Update, New Bald Eagle Admitted

( Photo: This is the male Bald Eagle that was rescued last night by some great folks. This photo was taken about a little over an hour ago.)

It is beginning to feel like we should be called "Eagles are US" here at REGI. Last night we had the dramatic rescue of a beautiful adult male Bald Eagle and this afternoon we picked up another Bald Eagle, although this time a 3-4 year old female bird.

The male eagle from last night looks a lot better. You can see that from the photo. Don't let the photo fool you however, he is still in critical condition. We have tube fed him small amounts through the day. He is still very weak. I gave him a few small bits of meat, but he was unable to digest it. We are back to tube feeding him liquid diet until his body can process real food. This eagle was not only stressed, injured and suffering from hypothermia when admitted, but he is starving as well. What a quadruple whammy for him to have to overcome. Tomorrow we will get xrays of his wings and his left foot if he is stable enough. So much rides on if his foot is going to recover. A Bald Eagle with one foot is not releasable to the wild. Keep your fingers crossed and positive energy coming for this eagle. He has been through so much. It is time for him to catch a break.



( Photo: for those of you that did not see the blog yesterday, this is what the male Bald Eagle in the first photo looked like about 24 hours ago. He has made some headway.)

Tonight we drove again this time to Wausau to pick up the female Bald Eagle. She was rescued and transported from Mead Wildlife Area.
She is a big young lady bird between three and four years old. Bald Eagles do not get that distinctive white head and tail until they are over four years old, but it usually it is between five and seven years of age. The white head and tail tells the world they are ready for breeding and all the responsibilities adulthood brings.




( Photo: This immature Bald Eagle is a big female. She has a broken left wing. We do not know how she fractured the wing yet. She is twice as big as the male that was admitted last night. )

This little lady is a survivor with a capital S. From the time she was captured she made it known that she was in charge and wasn't having any pity party from humans.



( Photo: The immature plumage of this Bald Eagle has a beautiful mottled appearance. Each birds plumage is slightly different. This bird is a stunning young lady. Kind of an "Angelina Jolie" of the Bald Eagle world. )



( Photo: That is no smile on this young lady eagles beak. She is all business and if she has anything to say about it, she will recover and be out of here in six weeks or so. Birds bones are hollow so they heal more quickly that bones of mammals.)

I know our blogging public pretty well by now and I can "hear" you all wondering what the difference is between the male and the female Bald Eagle. Size matters in the eagle world and actually for most raptors. The female is about 1/3 LARGER than the male. In the case of the two eagles in our clinic tonight, the female is slightly over twice his size.
Here is the photo to prove it. That is no trick photography. The male is an older bird, I would say over 15 or more. The female still a kid at age 3 or 4.



( Photo: The adult male Bald Eagle is half the size of the immature female Bald Eagle in the box next to him. Male eagles are VERY nice to their mates, if they are wise that is. :)

It was a long night and a longer day. I am off to bed without even proof reading this blog. Forgive me for typos I will fix them tomorrow. Lets hope tomorrow brings no more Bald Eagle Drama.
Thanks again to everyone that helped get help for both of these beautiful birds.

Marge Gibson © 2009

Bald Eagle With Lead Poisoning Rescued In Post Lake, WI.. This is What it is Like. (Update Included)

( Photo: Three young men from Post Lake, WI found this four year old Bald Eagle female suffering from lead poisoning near their driveway. They remained with the bird until Lance and I arrived and were able to capture her.)

Last night I promised to write about the Bald Eagle Lance and I rescued in Post Lake, WI just hours earlier. She is a four year old female. She weighs just 7.12 lbs. Female should weigh up to 12 or 14 lbs. in our region.

Starvation occurs in birds with lead poisoning because the digestive system slows or stops working. She was in such critical last night, we didn't weigh her until this morning. By then she had been given fluid to rehydrate her. That means she weighed less than 7 lbs when admitted. When working with wild birds excessive handling and manipulating may actually cause their immediate death rather than save it due to stress. We are careful to do only the things that will be life saving when admitting birds in such delicate condition.

We suspected from the eagles behavior and level of starvation that she was suffering from lead poisoning. We drew blood work from her on admission. Sadly, we deal with so much lead poisoning in wild birds here in northern Wisconsin, we have our own lead analyzer. In this way we are able to get results back within an hour and begin treatment. It can take four days or more to get results when blood samples are sent out to a commercial laboratory.



( Photo: Even our blood lead analyzer was shocked at how high the lead level was on this beautiful Bald Eagle. Rather than reporting the usual number is just read HI. It does that when the sample is too high for the machine to read. That reading makes us cringe because recovery is not optimistic.)

We continue to battle for her life. Today she seemed to be doing better. Her breathing was regular. She was no longer making raspy sounds when taking a breath. She is on antibiotics for pneumonia and Ca EDTA to chelate her blood of the lead.

Tonight, she has taken a turn for the worse. Much of the progress made during the last 24 hours has gone backwards. She is on heat, but her body temperature is dropping. That indicates her body is trying to shut down. Our job is to try to trick her body into continuing on with artifical heat and other supportive care. I am trying to remain optimistic but the statistics are not in her facor. It will be another long night.



( Photo: Bald Eagle with lead poisoning upon arrival at REGI.)

Lead poisoning is a human caused problem in native wildlife. It seems at least to me, it is also a human responsibility to correct the issue. That is true especially now that we are aware of the toxicity to all life including our own. Still, there are strong lobby's for the "rights" of humans to use lead ammunition and lead fishing sinkers etc. Many do not believe it is a problem at all but something environmentalists have trumped up. One day here at REGI would change their mind. But,it is easier to close their eyes and repeat phrases others with profit margins offer. A sad commentary on our species. I wish we took the rights of the wild ones we share our world with seriously. Maybe someday we will. I hope so.

So, I will sit tonight alone, keeping this stunning female Bald Eagle comfortable in hopes that the CA EDTA will grab enough of the lead from her blood to make a difference, allow her to live and be free once more. Where are the folks now that doubt that lead is a toxin? They are certainly not here and not with us in this struggle. I am with her because she may go into convulsions. If she does she will have to be restrained so she does not break her wings or aspirate. Lead poisoning is ugly.

You can see in the photos above that her habitat, her home, is beautiful. How was she to know it held hidden dangers that could kill her? This is not an isolated case. It is not one Bald Eagle in the entire northland that became lead poisoned. We see so much lead poisoning in many birds including Trumpeter Swans and even a Mallard Duck came in with lead poisoning this week.

Sometimes people disappoint me. This is one of those times.

More tomorrow,
Marge Gibson © 2009

UPDATE BELOW

( Photo: We made it through the night and for the first time this amazing eagle is aware of her surroundings. I hate to get optimistic too soon, but the first 48 hours are the hardest. We are willing to keep trying as long as she is willing.)

Bald Eagle Rescued from Swamp, Orion Goes Home

( Photos: A few moments after capturing the adult Bald Eagle near Wausau, WI. We were still in the woods/swamp when this photo was taken. If only you could see the swamp drenched lower part of my body in the photo::(( )

We received a call Sunday night about an adult Bald Eagle unable to fly near Wausau, WI. We had a similar call a few miles from the site the day before, but the eagle had disappeared into the woods before we were able to rescue it. So, we grabbed Natasha and her boyfriend Brad and our new intern, University of MN Pre Vet student, Elizabeth and were off to make the hour plus drive to try to find the eagle that was in trouble.



(Photo: Ron Drayler, the citizen that first located the injured eagle and called REGI for help, holds the bird for a photo.
Left to Right on the photo: Brad, Ron Drayler, Natasha and Elizabeth)

The location of the bird first appeared to be a wooded area. I incorrectly assumed we would be able to find him, rescue him and then be home for a late dinner. What I didn't see what the thick swamp behind what turned out to be a small stand of trees.
The eagle was no where to be found when we arrived. Since we had previous calls on what I thought was the same bird, I wanted to do our best to find him. Wildlife hides when they are in trouble and disappear quickly into thickets in an effort to protect themselves while they are injured and vulnerable.

The short part of a long story is, with Ron in the lead I followed into the swamp. The ground was wet and my adventure began. It was a few hours later by the time I located the eagle. To capture him I ended up knee deep in dark swamp muck. For those of you that are not familiar with swamp muck, it acts like quick sand. Before I knew it I had lost a shoe and then the other shoe. I retrieved both shoes but before the adventure was over had lost them each again. To say I was tired by the time I had the eagle in arm is an understatement. Looking at the photos taken at the time, I am not sure if the eagle was more exhausted or me.




( Photo: Natasha holds the Bald Eagle at the Antigo Veterinary Clinic while waiting for x-rays.
Photo: Elizabeth holding the Bald Eagle with Dr Rich Piowani at the Antigo Veterinary Clinic. )

We are so grateful to the terrific veterinarians at the Antigo Veterinary Clinic in Antigo for their care and help with our wild birds. They have a very busy practice but somehow always make time for our patients.

I worried the right wing of the eagle may have had an old fracture however, the x-rays did not revel any fractures. No pieces of lead that might cause toxin were found either. The eagles blood lead was also within low normal limits. That is a surprise since almost every Bald Eagle cared for at REGI has some degree of lead poisoning.

He is anemic however and was low in weight. We will keep looking for a reason for him to be debilitated. It could be as simple as he was injured in some way and was not able to hunt during that time. Starvation could be the reason he is now too weak to fly and why he is anemic. Wildlife cases are always a puzzle. We take all the clues we can from the history and then piece it together.

We are very optimistic for this eagle to return to the wild. He is now eating well and is getting stronger.



(Photo: Orion the Great-horned Owl that is an education bird for Trees for Tomorrow in Eagle River with Katie and Troy Walters, Orion's handler. Not a great photo of Orion, but he was squinting in the sun. )

Orion went home yesterday. Orion is the educational Great-horned Owl that was housed at REGI while his enclosure was finished at Trees for Tomorrow in Eagle River. His handler Troy Walters is very dedicated and traveled to the REGI facility in Antigo to keep up with Orion's training. Troy was here so often we began to feel like he was a part of the REGI family. We will miss them both now that they are back in Eagle River, but know a bright future in wildlife education awaits them both.



( Photo: Baby Eastern Bluebirds are miniature models of the beautiful adults and just as sweet. Even at this age their lovely song is apparent.)

We have had many more admits including lots of baby Cedar Waxwings and Eastern Bluebirds. They are such beautiful little tykes and a joy to have in care.

There is much work to do today including trying to find out why my email refuses to send attachements. My computer and I have a love hate relationship these days.:(
So, if you have been expecting an email from me and did't get it, please call.

Have a great day everyone,
Marge Gibson © 2009