Eagle saved by local woman

Poisoned bird makes surprising recovery

Friday, July 31, 2009

Click here to enlarge this photo Photo submitted by HUGH SIMMONS At the Phoenix Wildlife Center in Phoenix, Md., volunteer Jamie Frailey holds the immature bald eagle for an examination. The estimated 4- to 5-month old eagle with a 6-foot wingspan was found injured and flopping around in Helen Pavone's Lusby yard about two weeks ago. The heads of Bald eagles do not turn white until they are about 5 years old and they are called immature bald eagles until their head feathers turn all white. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by CAROL HARVAT Helen Pavone, 90, of Lusby holds her cat, Kiki. Pavone found Kiki four years ago disheveled and in need of help, one of many animals she has helped over the years on her forested property. Two weeks ago she and Kiki found an injured bald eagle in a bush in her front yard and assisted it until an animal control officer came to take it to a rehabilitation center.

When Helen Pavone went with her cat Kiki to discover why a bush in her Lusby front yard was rustling two weeks ago, she met up with a large immature bald eagle that flapped its wings on the ground as Kiki darted in another direction.

"The cat ran, he didn't stay there like I did," Pavone said.

Ninety-year-old Pavone wasn't afraid and noticed that the eagle was injured and could not fly. As if by instinct, she went into the house to get a blanket to put over the eagle to calm it. For two years, bald eagles have made a nest in a tall tree in Pavone's wooded front yard, and "do they squawk," she said.

"I wanted to be a vet, but I came from a poor family. I try to take care of all the animals that come along" Pavone said.

Over her lifetime, Pavone has become a veterinarian of sorts for wild animals. She has cared for or fed fox, possum, raccoons, deer and a family of turtles, that came back the last three springs in a row, she said. Four years ago Kiki wandered into her yard "really skinny and paws all sore" and now he weighs 16 pounds and is well groomed.

Pavone said years ago she nursed four baby blue birds that were abandoned when they fell out of their nest. People told her they would die, but she said she took care of them anyway until they were able to fly.

"They all grew up and I opened the cage and they flew out," Pavone said. At first they flew back and forth, but eventually they left, she said. But Pavone knew the eagle was too much for her to take care of so she called Animal Control to come for it.

An American bald eagle is fully grown when it is around 4 to 5 months old, with wingspans around 6 feet, but an immature bald eagle's head feathers are brown and do not turn all white until it is about 5 years old. Pavone's bald eagle is estimated to be around 4 to 5 months old.

Animal control

to the rescue

Calvert County Sheriff's Office Animal Control Officer Tim Lewis said when he saw the eagle it was lying on its chest and looked exhausted. Lewis said he put on welding gloves, took a blanket and gently wrapped it around the eagle, covering its eyes. He then turned it onto on its back and held onto its talons.

"It was an easier rescue than expected. I think it realized what was going on," Lewis said. Eagles become calm when they are placed on their backs and the eagle did not fight Lewis at all, he said.

"It was a very successful and smooth rescue." But the eagle did not look well, "flopping its head around like a neck injury. It barely moved," Lewis said. He was not sure if the animal would live. At first, Lewis thought the immature eagle might have hit a tree while coming in to land in the nest or it might have been caught in a spin and come crashing to the ground, Lewis suspected.

Lewis called the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to find out where he should take the eagle and they told him to transport it to Feathers and Friends Rehab Center in Brandywine. The center's owner, Lynn Anderson, met Lewis halfway at the Hughesville fire station and he turned over the eagle.

"When I got the eagle he couldn't even sit up on his feet at all," Anderson said. She gave the animal some fluids, learned it did not have a head injury as suspected, then took the eagle to a veterinarian and placed him in a container cage that supplied the eagle with oxygen and heat, similar to an incubator, she said. The next morning the eagle surprised Anderson when it was sitting upright.

"I really expected to find him dead. He was in such critical shape, tremors and all," she said. Anderson said she kept it in a playpen the following day and force-fed him. The second morning the eagle surprised her again when she found it "standing up on the edge of the play pen."

Off to another

treatment facility

Since Anderson does not have a flight pen, she transported the eagle to the Phoenix Wildlife Center in Phoenix, Md., north of Towson, where licensed wildlife rehabilitator and director Kathy Woods took over treatment. Woods, certified in eagle rehab since 2004, said the eagle had symptoms of lead poisoning and gave it blood tests and an X-ray. Lead amounts came back positive.

"His lead level was very high. The symptoms are similar to head trauma," Woods said.

The eagle could have been poisoned with lead from eating fish, ducks or another carcass contaminated with lead or from a lead fishing sinker, she said, adding that the X-ray did not show any specific piece of lead in the eagle.

"It's actually very common. I hear from other rehabbers, a lot are coming in with lead poisoning," Wood said.

The eagle is being medicated for lead poisoning and lead levels are being tested during the therapy. Woods said she will give the eagle the medication until it gets better, which is normally about two weeks.

"We caught it right away and he's doing quite well," she said. When the blood levels are all normal, Woods expects the eagle to be taken back to Anderson who will then release it back to its nest in Pavone's yard in Lusby.

Pavone, who was glad to hear the eagle was doing so well, said it would be nice to see the eagle back in its nest.

charvat@somdnews.com

A good county for saving eagles

Since the spring, two other bald eagles have been rescued in the county. One was by a farmer who found the eagle in the middle of his field on Mallard Point Road just off of Stoakley Road. The eagle was treated and released back to where it was found, reported Animal Control Officer Tim Lewis.

Another bald eagle was found injured in Barstow and was rescued and given medication. About a week later the eagle was set back in flight in Barstow, said Lynn Anderson of Feathers and Friends Rehab Center in Brandywine. A video of the eagles' release may be viewed at the Web link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E68AQ90yY0.