The Wildlife Center of Virginia, the nation’s leading teaching and research hospital for native wildlife, will release a Bald Eagle on

Westover Plantation, photo courtesy of Starke Jett

Saturday, January 24 at 12:00 noon at Westover Plantation, on the James River in Charles City County. 

Participating in the release will be Ed Clark, President and Co-Founder of the Wildlife Center. 

This juvenile Bald Eagle was spotted on September 11 in Richmond County, on the ground and unable to fly, by Andrew Edwards.  The bird was taken to Diana O’Connor of the Wildbunch Wildlife Rehabilitation Refuge for overnight care and was transported by Mr. Edwards on September 12 to the Wildlife Center in Waynesboro.

Ed Clark and the Bald Eagle, photo courtesy of Starke Jett

Upon admission, the eagle was given a complete diagnostic examination, including radiographs, blood tests, and a test for exposure to lead [which was negative].  The bird was in great body condition, although blood tests revealed exposure to organophosphates [pesticides].  The bird was given fluids and treated with Itraconazole [an anti-fungal medication].  After a week of treatment, blood tests found no signs of organophosphate contamination. 

Upon admission, the Bald Eagle’s feathers were stuck together with an unknown coating.  The Center’s veterinary staff started working to remove the substance on the bird’s feathers – first by spraying the feathers with water and then undertaking a two-week daily “wipe-down” with water and Dawn detergent.  This process removed some but not all of the foreign substance on the feathers.  

The eagle was moved into an outdoor pen within a few days of admission; the Center’s rehabilitation staff has been exercising the bird to build up its stamina.  On December 27, the bird was moved to one of the Center’s large flight pens, where it has now demonstrated that it is ready for return to the wild.  While the eagle’s feathers are not completely clean, the Center’s veterinary staff have determined that the bird can fly well and is waterproof; the bird’s feathers will be replaced naturally through molting later this spring.   

The eagle will be released on the grounds of Westover Plantation [c. 1730] on the north shore of the James River, across the river from a National Wildlife Refuge.  The 4,200-acre refuge was created in 1991 and hosts one of the largest eagle roosts on the East Coast. 

The eagle to be released on Saturday is one of the 25 Bald Eagles admitted to the Wildlife Center in 2008.  Thus far in 2009 the Center has admitted four eagles. 

It is estimated that the Bald Eagle population of North America numbered about half a million before European settlement.  With the loss of habitat, shooting, and the effects of DDT and other pesticides, the U.S. eagle population plummeted.  In 1977, there were fewer than 50 Bald Eagle nests in Virginia. 

Today, the Bald Eagle population in Virginia is on the rebound.  There are now more than 500 active Bald Eagle nests in the Commonwealth. 

Every year, about 2,500 animals – ranging from Bald Eagles to opossums to chipmunks – are brought to the Wildlife Center for care.  “The goal of the Center is to restore our patients to health and return as many as possible to the wild,” Clark said.  “At the Wildlife Center, we treat to release.”  

Since its founding in 1982, the nonprofit Center has cared for more than 50,000 wild animals, representing 200 species of native birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.  The Center’s public education programs share insights gained through the care of injured and orphaned wildlife, in hopes of reducing human damage to wildlife.  The Center trains veterinary and conservation professionals from all over the world and is actively involved in comprehensive wildlife health studies and the surveillance of emerging diseases.