Unfortunately not all bird stories have a happy ending. As my relatives arrived for 4th of July activities at my lake home, just before sundown a very destructive thunderstorm struck the lakes area. Winds were clocked at 80 mph. I had 9 large trees across my driveway and the biggest on my roof. Spent next morning clearing drive and removing tree from roof.
Elderly neighbor calls later for help. He is a heart transplant recipient and has other medical issues. Now to shorten the story somewhat. My neighbor and I have an active eagles nest along my east and his west boundary. After clearing his drive and returning to my place, there ahead on the gravel road was a 3/4 grown eaglet. It attempted to fly off, but could only hobble away due to a severely broken. left wing. My first inclination was to drive on and let nature take it's course. Few animals in the wild die of old age. However my wife was along and insisted that we intercede. Then returning to my place, I assembled my pet carrier, found long handled landing net, and gauntlet style welder gloves. We did manage to capture eaglet relatively easily. Unfortunately he/she had too many forces working against her/he. It had spent 30 hrs injured on the ground with no food or water, high temps, and 4th of July. We placed the eaglet in our basement in a cool dark area and covered the crate with a light blanket. We managed to get it to consume a small amount of water by spraying it's beak. We could get information from internets websites, but had great difficulty making actual contact with anyone who could help because of the holiday and or distance involved. We finally made contact with a group in Baxter, Mn They agreed to meet us halfway and take over the care of the young eagle. We met at Pequot Lakes and made the exchange even though it was the 4th of July. We contacted the group today and received the sad news that the eagle had to be euthanized due to it's weaken state and the severity of it's injury. I am sure that I did many things wrong and may have been partly responsible for the birds downturn and eventual demise. I am much saddened by these events. I was wondering what opinions members have on the proper protocols if you were faced with a similar situation. -- Hackensack/Longville Cass County, Mn ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
