The Wildlife Center of Virginia, the nation’s leading teaching and research hospital for native wildlife, released a Bald Eagle on Friday, October 2 at 1:00 p.m. at Westover Plantation, on the James River in Charles City County. 

      Participating in the release was Ed Clark, President and Co-Founder of the Wildlife Center, and Dr. Dave McRuer, the Center’s Director of Veterinary Medicine.   Also attending was Dr. Bryan Watts of the College of William and Mary’s Center for Conservation Biology.

Dr. Bryan Watts, Ed Clark, & Dr. Dave McRuer. Photo courtesy of Mike Fowler

            This adult Bald Eagle – a female – was spotted on the morning of June 16, on the ground and unable to fly, at the King and Queen County Landfill.  The bird was rescued by Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Conservation Police Officer George Wilson.  The eagle was first taken to wildlife rehabilitator Diana O’Connor and then transported to the Center’s clinic in Waynesboro by volunteer Alex Mueller.

       Upon admission, the eagle received a complete examination.  The Center veterinary team found two old fractures [likely a week to 10 days old] in the bird’s left ulna; one of those fractures had already started to heal.  The eagle’s wing was bandaged for a week; the bird received an additional 10 days of cage rest, with physical therapy [primarily wing extensions] every three days.  Radiographs taken on June 27 found healing was well underway.

       On July 9, the eagle was moved outdoors and began a protocol of additional rehabilitation and conditioning.  The Center’s rehabilitation staff has been exercising the bird in the Center’s largest outdoor flight pen to build up its stamina, and the eagle demonstrated that it was ready for return to the wild. 

Photo by Lee Skluzak

       The eagle was released at Westover [ca. 1730], across the James 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 released on Friday was banded by a nestling at Camp Peary in 2003 by Dr. Watts.  The Wildlife Center added a second large colored band, which will be readable through binoculars or a birding scope.

Photo by Holly Smith

       “The eagle we’re releasing today is a case study for the network of public and private agencies and individuals who have worked to protect the Bald Eagle,” Clark said.  “The Wildlife Center, VDGIF, the Center for Conservation Biology at William and Mary, licensed rehabbers, and caring individuals have all been part of this eagle’s life-story, and all join us in celebrating this bird’s return to the wild.”

      A group of biologists from VDGIF recently came to the Wildlife Center for training in drawing blood samples from Bald Eagles.  That skill will be called on later this winter when VDGIF pulls blood samples from eagles in the wild to test for exposure to mercury.  The Center has also now started adding colored bands, issued through VDGIF, to all released eagles.

      The Center is also collecting feathers from Bald Eagle patients to provide samples to the Center for Conservation Biology for its study of mercury toxicity.

       The eagle released on Monday is one of the 33 Bald Eagles admitted to the Wildlife Center thus far in 2009.   The all-time record for eagle admissions was set in 2007, when the Center admitted a total of 36 Bald 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 600 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 53,000 wild animals, representing 200 species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.  The Center’s public education programs share insights gained through the care of injured and orphaned wild animals, 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 eagle's nictitating eye membrane, photo by Holly Smith

Additional photos and videos from the October 2 release are available through the Norfolk Eagle Support Team International [NESTI] Forum.