As part of their annual Spring Eagle Release, the Alaska Raptor Center in Sitka rounded up eleven eagles they had rehabilitated and released them back into the wild.
SITKA, Alaska - As part of their annual Spring Eagle Release, the Alaska Raptor Center in Sitka rounded up eleven eagles they had rehabilitated and released them back into the wild. “Releasing eleven birds at once is kind of an exhausting thing,” Alaska Raptor Center Avian Director Jennifer Cedarleaf said.
“Eagles, they’re just big and strong, and they tire you out real fast.” The birds were brought to the center after being found in the wild with various injuries ranging from gunshot wounds to lead poisoning. The Alaska Raptor Center works with Bird Treatment & Learning Center in Anchorage and Alaska WildBird in Palmer, which lack the flight facilities to house the number of eagles that the Sitka group can. “We don’t like to put the young birds out into the wild when it’s hard to find food,” Cedarleaf explained. “So, we will wait and hold them until spring herring season. We have a big herring fishery in Sitka and a big herring population, so there’s always tons of food this time of year.” Ironically, according to Cedarleaf, the most difficult part of the release process is catching the birds in their temporary home at the Alaska Raptor Center so they can be taken back outside to be released. “We had one this time that was the worst bird I’ve ever had,” she recalled of the eagle they’d named Snow. “She took us like 45 minutes to catch. She was the very last bird in there and she did not want to come out.” Despite the tediousness, eagles like Snow remind Cedarleaf of the rewarding parts of handling birds - and that every eagle that enters their custody does so with a personality and story. “We had named her Snow, and she was named after one of our employees’ grandmothers,” she recalled. “And I said, ‘Your grandmother is being very stubborn.’”While getting to know the individual birds can be rewarding, according to Cedarleaf, nothing compares to having the chance to release them back into the wild. “It’s really good to see birds fly away, especially ones that have had broken bones that you’ve really been worried about or that had lead poisoning and you’ve put so much extra work into getting them back healthy and out into the wild again,” she said. “To see a bird that was pretty bad off when it came to us actually fly away is one of the coolest things.” ‘Every fiber of me wishes I could change it all’: Veteran musher posts tribute to dog who died during IditarodBethel officer-involved shooting leaves one injuredThousands in Alaska gather for third round of ‘No Kings’ protests
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