On Thursday, August 4, the Wildlife Center of Virginia will be releasing Bald Eagle #11-1170 in Northern Virginia – at Mason Neck State Park in Fairfax County. 

This young bird, hatched earlier this year, was found on the ground near its nest in Fort Washington, Maryland on May 20 and taken to a local rehabber. At the recommendation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the eagle was ultimately brought to the Wildlife Center – in part because we were already treating several eagles of about the same age.

#11-1170 was admitted on June 5; the eagle had a painfully swollen tail and was missing a few feathers.  Center vets started treating the bird with antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and pain medication.  The bird showed steady improvement, and by June 21 the eagle was ready to join two other young Bald Eagle patients in one leg of the Center’s largest outdoor flight pen. 

Center vets and rehabilitation staff have continued to monitor the bird’s progress – the eagle is now flying very well — and have determined that #11-1170 is ready to go back into the wild.

While Mason Neck is relatively close to the Capital Beltway, the release site is on a peninsula in the Potomac River that provides prime habitat for Bald Eagles and other birds.  The park connects to a 2,200-acre National Wildlife Refuge – created in 1969 to protect essential nesting, feeding, and roosting habitat for Bald Eagles.   In fact, the refuge has been listed as one of the top 10 sites in the country for viewing Bald Eagles.  And Mason Neck is a relatively short hop across the Potomac River from the site where the eagle was first rescued.   Information about Mason Neck State Park, and directions to the Park, are available at http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/mas.shtml.

If you are planning on attending the release, please RSVP to president@wildlifecenter.org.

Your special donation will help the Center to provide state-of-the-art medical care to Bald Eagles … and to the 2,200+ other patients the Center will admit this year.  Please help!