Wildlife Center of Virginia Releases Bald Eagle on Monday, September 7

     The Wildlife Center of Virginia, the nation’s leading teaching and research hospital for native wildlife, released a Bald Eagle on Monday, September 7 at 11:00 a.m. at Westover Plantation, on the James River in Charles City County.   This was the ninth Bald Eagle released by the Center during 2009.      Participating in the release was Ed Clark, President and Co-Founder of the Wildlife Center.  Assisting Clark was Dr. Ariane Santamaria-Bouvier. 

Photo courtey of Duane Noblick

      This juvenile Bald Eagle – hatched earlier this year – was first spotted in early July on the ground near Doughtery, Accomack County, on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.  The young eagle could not fly; it was being fed by an adult eagle, but after several days the adult was gone.  The young eagle was rescued and stabilized by wildlife rehabilitator Kathy Cummings, with assistance from the Eastern Shore Animal Hospital.          On July 16, the eagle was taken to the Wildlife Center of Virginia, with transport provided by volunteers Barbara Monaghan and Mike Fowler.   Upon admission, the eagle received a complete examination.  The Center's veterinary team, led by Dr. Elizabeth Daut, found old fractures in the bird’s left metacarpal bones – fractures likely sustained in the nest that had started to heal.         The Wildlife Center gave this eagle a “second chance” – providing medical treatment, food, shelter, and the support and time it needed to heal. The Center’s rehabilitation staff exercised the bird in the Center’s largest outdoor flight pen to build up its stamina, and the eagle demonstrated that it is ready for return to the wild.  Before release, the eagle was banded with a small, numbered aluminum band issued by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.  The eagle was also banded at the release site with a larger, colored band -- purple [for the Chesapeake Bay region], with the number "00" -- a band designed to be visible through binoculars or a birding scope.    Subsequent reports from birders and other wildlife observers about "00" will help track this eagle's travels.    
Photo courtesy of Henry Lapo
  
       The eagle was released at Westover, 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.  [Additional information from Ed Clark about releasing at Westover]. 
      The eagle released on Monday is one of the 33 Bald Eagles admitted to the Wildlife Center thus far in 2009 [as of September 10].   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 native 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.        Additional photos of the September 7 eagle release have been posted on the Norfolk Eagle Support Team International Forum.