A young bald eagle released at Beaver Lake appears fit as a fiddle after a short stay in the hospital.
The newly hatched bald eagle showed up in mid June wandering around on the deck of a home at Beaver Lake. The home is close to a bald eagle nest in a cove near Coppermine Lodge. The bird looked thin and sick, possibly from not eating after tumbling from the nest, said Alan Bland, park ranger with the Army Corps of Engineers.
Wildlife officer Cal Gunter with the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission recovered the eagle and took it to Lynn Sciumbato at Morning Star Wildlife Rehabilitation Center near Gravette. The bird had a healthy appetite and regained its strength until Sciumbato deemed it fit for release last month.
The big day arrived July 24 when Bland and Sciumbato took the eagle by boat to the nest site in the back of a cove with a forest of timber in the water. Bland said the young eagle's parents were near the nest. When the door of the crate was opened, the eagle flew out lickety split.
"It flew out about 75 yards over the water and landed in a tree and stayed there for about 40 minutes. Then it took off 300 yards up the cove and landed in another tree," Bland said.
The adults and the young eagle started chattering, making sounds that Bland or Sciumbato had never heard from bald eagles before. The eagle's survival looked promising when Bland and Sciumbato left the cove, exhilarated about the outcome.
A short video of the eagle release can be seen on the Army Corps of Engineers' Beaver Lake Facebook page.
The future looks bright for the eagle so far, Sciumbato said, but it's not out of the woods yet. It will need to learn to hunt on its own. Right now, it still needs some help from mom and dad.
"Once they start flying, they're starting to hunt on their own. But it's an acquired skill. You have to learn to catch stuff," Sciumbato said.
The adults may bring the young bird an occasional fish or other food until the youngster can fend for itself, she said.
Things aren't looking so good for the nest itself, Bland said. The eagles built it in a pine tree that has died. The big nest of sticks and branches is very exposed and is falling apart, Bland said. It is believed to be the second nest that eagles have built in the cove. The first nest was destroyed in the epic 2009 ice storm.
Whether the eagles will use the rickety nest again or abandon it is uncertain, Bland said. He plans to check it periodically during his patrols on the lake.
It wasn't long ago that bald eagles were seen at Beaver Lake only during winter. Not so now. The number of nests on the lake, and an increasing population of bald eagles nationwide, means eagles are occasionally seen here during summer. Their numbers increase dramatically in the fall and winter when winter migrants from up north come down to join them.
Sports on 08/06/2015