I received a phone call yesterday. About 9 years ago, I volunteered one morning a week at a local bird/wildlife rescue center here in Alaska. This center makes efforts in helping injured birds, their rehabilitation and eventual return to the wild. I worked with eagles a great deal, and became fairly experienced in handling them.
Recently, a dump truck full of fish guts, fish slime and fish oil pulled out of a processing plant on Kodiak Island, Alaska. Eagles hang around such places, sometimes in great numbers looking for an easy meal. Over 50 eagles swarmed that truck and chaos ensued. 20 birds got pushed down into the mess and drowned in the fish slime/oil. Others became trapped and had to be rescued. The bird rehab center where I used to volunteer had 30 very dirty eagles shipped to it. 30 eagles is a lot of work. I agreed to come in and help.
I wish I had been able to take more photos, but I was busy moving eagles from kennels to exam table to the washroom and to pens. Keeping these large birds under control to prevent them from hurting themselves or hurting me was a difficult task. As you get tired, it's easy to get careless. My hands are aching tonight from the tight grip I had to maintain on their legs as I moved them around, during the exam and during their bath. But I did manage to take this photo of some of the other volunteers with a mature male bald eagle on the exam table. The gal on the left is placing a hood over the bird. Doing so really helps to calm the eagle down.
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Oh, my goodness!
I'm so happy that you were able to help Andy. What a job that would be!
That's a great shot, and a wonderful thing you're doing. I heard about this on the radio. The plant is supposed to keep such things covered, but apparently someone messed up.
Thanks for helping these magnificent birds.
It's a real privilege to work with these eagles. And many thanks to the folks who really worked thru this from the very beginning. It's a job they get little thanks for but a great deal of satisfaction, especially when it comes time to releasing these birds.
Wow what a job that must have been.
They are such magnifcant birds, especially in the wild!
A friend sent me the following photo yesterday with my arms full of feathers and hands full of beak and talons. This is an immature bird. They get the white head and tail feathers in their 5th year. Believe me when I say they are a handful!
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What a huge bird!!!!
I really admire you doing this, my daughter would love to have helped!
Andy, we're missing you on here. I certainly hope that you share some of your awesome photos soon again.