An immature eagle released Saturday during the Alaska Bald Eagle Festival was recaptured Monday due to concerns it wouldn’t survive in the wild.
“Baby,” a bird found in late July after falling from a nest in Juneau, failed to gain elevation before a crowd of more than 200. “(It) flew about 10 feet and went right into the drink,” said onlooker Michael Marks of Haines. After plopping into the Chilkat River near 21 Mile, the bird eventually crossed the river.
Scot Tiernan, a volunteer with the Juneau Raptor Center responsible for the release, let the bird go near the river’s edge, but the eagle – which had never flown in the wild — hesitated before descending into the water. It floated more than 100 yards before reaching the opposite shore.
It appeared to attempt flight at that point, but made only some long hops.
Volunteers found the bird close to the same spot Monday, said Cheryl McRoberts, operations manager of the American Bald Eagle Foundation. “That’s not a good sign,” she said. The bird would be sent to a raptor rehabilitation center, she said.
She said her group has been criticized for the release, which was conducted by the Juneau group. “We didn’t know it had a problem,” McRoberts said. “The Juneau Raptor Center said it was okay for release.”
The foundation invites raptor centers to release birds here during the festival, but the foundation isn’t an eagle hospital nor does it have permitting to release rehabilitated birds, McRoberts said. “We’re not allowed to release eagles. We’re not a rehabilitation center.”
Apprehension about the eagle’s flying ability led Tiernan to move the ceremony from Klukwan to Mile 21 Haines Highway. “Baby fell out of the nest at a very young age and has been inside ever since and has never flown more than 50 feet (in a pen),” he said. “I was concerned about the width of the water up there. This is a better place for this very young eagle,” he said Saturday.
The eagle made it to a salmon carcass near where it came ashore. “There were a few tense moments when we watched it floating downstream, but when it got onto the shore, we cheered,” said resident Lorrie Dudzik.
Felix Geithner of Whitehorse said another positive sign was when the bird pushed away eagles that tried to take the fish.
Previous to last year, eagles released here were from an Anchorage rehabilitation center. That facility didn’t have any birds to release this year. Last year’s release was cancelled for lack of an eagle.
McRoberts said Baby had four broken flight feathers, which apparently inhibited its ability to get airborne. She said the eagle may have damaged itself during transport or while being held in Haines.
Two veterinarians at the release of the bird had concerns about its readiness to return to the wild, McRoberts said.
Tiernan said “niceness isn’t part of nature,” but other eagles probably allowed the bird to have that first fish. “Quite often, they’ll move away from the juveniles and let the juveniles feed,” he said.
Tiernan said the bird had a lengthy rehabilitation.
“This one took a little bit longer, because it took a long time for it to fly,” he said. “It didn’t start perching as young as we would have thought. As a baby, they lay down; they don’t perch. It spent a long time laying down in the kennels and out of the flight mew.”
Resident Jim Shook drove past soon after the release Saturday and got a report from Marks. Shook, who has participated in other eagle releases, said “there’s no place in the world better to release an eagle” than the Alaska Bald Eagle Preserve, “especially one like this eagle, who has never been out in the wild.You’ve got no wind, you’ve got tons of food and you have other eagles to watch,” Shook said.
Geithner attended the festival with Karin Roider, also of Whitehorse. The couple returned after a more frigid 2008 visit.
“I love bald eagles, and there’s so many here,” Roider said. “The first time I was here, it was just amazing. I’ve never seen so many in one spot.”