Juvenile Eagles Released – September, 2019
Today the 2 young eagles being cared for by Wild and Free were judged ready to be released back into the wild. They weren’t old enough to have the typical white head and tail but they were certainly big enough to be a handful to handle. We drove to the W&F facility to watch them being loaded into the transport cages. While we were waiting I snapped a couple of shots of a big hawk waiting to get well enough to be released.
Photo and narrative credit: Jim Lease
Time to load the eagles into the truck and head to the release site. Once there one of the W&F volunteers opened the first cage and removed the eagle. Full grown eagles are not happy when someone grabs them by their feet and pulls them out of a cage. They’re not shy about letting you know that.
This one was able to pull one of its feet loose. A full grown eagle has a wingspan of 6 feet or more and this one was able to use its wings to pull the volunteer around enough that it was able to eventually pull its other foot free and took off into the nearby woods.
Dr Debbie removed the second one from its cage. It wasn’t any happier about that than the first one.
She put the eagle down on the ground on its back where she was able to adjust her grip to prevent this one from getting away.
We all walked with her to the release area where we were able to watch one of the W&F volunteers do the actual release. Dr Debbie transferred the eagle to her and gave her instructions about how to boost the bird into the air.
And away it goes.
It gave a couple of flaps of those big wings and headed out across the open field.