The Wildlife Center of Virginia, the nation’s leading teaching and research hospital for native wildlife, released a Bald Eagle on Saturday, April 3 at 11:30 a.m. at the Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge [RRVNWR] near Warsaw, Virginia. 

The eagle was released by Ed Clark, President and Co-Founder of the Wildlife Center.    

This adult Bald Eagle, likely a female, was spotted on the ground near Route 360 near Callao [Northumberland County] on March 18.  The eagle was rescued by Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Conservation Police Officer Joshua Jackson and taken to wildlife rehabilitator Diana O’Connor.  The bird was picked up on March 19 by Frances Murphey of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; she transferred the bird to Center transporter Bobbi Monagahan, who brought the bird to the Wildlife Center in Waynesboro. 

Upon admission, the eagle was given a complete diagnostic examination, The initial exam and subsequent radiographs found no fractures; the eagle had some recent lesions in the back of its left eye, some bruising, and old wounds on the feet.  The eagle was also thin and dehydrated.  The eagle was treated with anti-inflammatories, fluids, anti-fungal medication, and eye-drops.  The bird has responded well to treatment, with significant improvements to the eye. The eagle has spent time in some of the Center’s outdoor pens, including a 100-foot flight pen, where it demonstrated that it could fly well and was ready to be returned to the wild. 

The eagle released on Saturday is one of 10 Bald Eagles admitted to the Center thus far in 2010.  During 2009, the Center admitted 40 Bald Eagles – a record in the Center’s 27-year history. 

The eagle was released with two bands.  The first is a small, numbered aluminum band issued by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, produced by the National Bird Banding Laboratory in Patuxent, Maryland.  The eagle was also banded with a larger, colored band — purple [for the Chesapeake Bay region] — a band designed to be visible through binoculars or a birding scope.    Subsequent reports from birders and other wildlife observers will help track this eagle’s travels.

[Additional photos and links to videos of the release have been posted on the Norfolk Eagle Support Team International website. ] 

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 54,000 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.    

The Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge is the newest of four refuges that make up the Eastern Virginia Rivers National Wildlife Refuge Complex.  As of September 2008, a total of 8,191 acres have been purchased or donated by Refuge partners, including 1,660 acres of conservation easements.  The Refuge provides critical roosting and nesting habitat for the Bald Eagle and includes Virginia’s largest wintering roost for eagles.  In February 2005, for example, 395 Bald Eagles were counted at the Refuge on a single day.   

[Eagle Photo #1 courtesy of Mike Fowler; Eagle Photos #2 and #3 courtesy of Holly Smith]. 

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