What started out as a seemingly simple beach rescue turned into a marine operation for a bird rescue specialist looking to save an injured bald eagle.
Residents living at the end of Atrevida Road near Lund were treated to “some spectacular entertainment” March 15 when they looked out their windows to see eagles battling it out above the beach, common behaviour for this time of year.
Paula O’Keefe-Blitz saw the aerial drama and witnessed a battle between a mature and adolescent eagle. They were fighting “over a large chunk of something edible” when the mature eagle fell and crashed hard on the rocks, possibly breaking a wing, she said. “We watched as it attempted to climb onto a large rock, but it wasn’t able to manage it.”
Atrevida resident Rossella Bradly called in Merrilee Prior, known in the area as the bird lady, to help save the injured bird.
Bradly said she was impressed by how quickly Prior arrived, only about 20 minutes after she was called.
The weather that day was grim and the beach at the end of the road faces south so the waves were crashing in, said Prior. The eagle was hiding behind a rock and it kept getting knocked over.
When eagles break their wings, they are not able to get away from predators very easily but that does not mean they are easy to capture, she added.
“She saw me coming and she tried to fly away,” said Prior, “but since she had broken one of her wings she just flipped herself onto her back.” The eagle got itself back to its feet and tried again, she said.
As Prior came closer the eagle decided to make a break for the ocean to try to escape. “She was in the water and heading for the island,” said Prior, who waded into the chilly water following the bird. Prior had a big dip net and was able to scoop the eagle up.
If the bird had not been rescued, she believes the broken wing would mean a certain death.
The bird was transported by Pacific Coastal Airlines to Richmond where it was then taken to OWL (Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society) in Delta to have its wing pinned. Prior estimates that the bird will have use of its wing in about two weeks, but it will stay at the rehabilitation centre for a couple of months. Once the eagle is fully healed it will be brought back to the beach at the end of Atrevida to be released.
