Representatives of the American Bald Eagle Foundation recently have sent two injured eagles to Juneau for rehabilitation.
Cheryl McRoberts, director of operations, responded to a call Oct. 16 for an injured eagle at 10 Mile Lutak Road.
“Sally McGuire called it in, and it was on the beach out in front of her house, out on Lutak, just before you go over the bridge,” McRoberts said. “She noticed that it was flopping around and had a broken wing.”
McRoberts and her team showed persistence to assist the eagle.
“Myself, and my husband, Bill McRoberts, and an intern, Kori Gaskill, we went out and tried to capture it, and it jumped in the water, then it jumped up on a rock and then it decided to swim across the river, so then we had to get in a vehicle and go on the other side and re-capture it with a fishing net,” she said.
The eagle was stabilized and transported to Juneau.
“It was out of the nest, this year’s bird, and still had down on it,” McRoberts said. “It was broken so that if your arm was a wing, it would be your wrist.”
In Juneau, McRoberts said, experts likely will “bandage it for a week, put it in a carrier for a week so it can’t move the wing, and then it will calcify the break.”
The eagle might return for the Alaska Bald Eagle Festival, Nov. 10-14.
“If it can be stabilized and healed, then they’ll bring it back here,” McRoberts said. “Juneau Raptor Center is going to be coming to the festival, and they’ll bring this juvenile back here so we can do an eagle release.”
She said the American Bald Eagle Foundation had taken a similar approach a few days earlier for another eagle with a broken wing, this time on Mud Bay Road.
“If it turns out that it’s a major break and it doesn’t heal correctly, then both of them could be eagles that end up living here in our new mew,” McRoberts said.
She said the foundation is “putting together an emergency kit to rescue eagles, because the season’s just starting.”