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Edition:
September 02, 2010
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NEWS
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Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Young bald eagle found injured on road
 | | John Eisele and Colton Sorenson, 10, show the injured young eagle found on a dirt road in the Tamarac Refuge Sunday evening. The family was taking care of the eagle until the DNR took over. Photo by Cally Nundahl |  |  | | A close up of the eagle. |
• by Cally Nundahl
A family rescued a young bald eagle from being easy prey after spotting the injured bird in the middle of the road Sunday evening, Aug. 2.
John Eisele and his girlfriend Wendy Sorenson and her son Colton were driving on a dirt road in Tamarac Refuge Sunday evening when they spotted the huge bird in the middle of the road. They stopped to watch and waited for it to fly away, "but it didn't move," said Eisele.
They noticed as it flapped its wings that the one wing stuck out and didn't seem to be working so they thought it was probably broken. Sorenson, an avid animal lover, wanted to take care of it and not leave it out there in the night where other animals would get at it. She gently placed her jean jacket over the eagle's head and put it in their vehicle to take back to the refuge.
"The place was all open but no one was around," Eisele stated. So they took the bird back to their place on County Highway 29 and decided to keep it overnight until the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) opened up the next morning.
The bird was scared but did pretty well. "We had to be careful of its razor-sharp claws, it cut through one pair of gloves already," Eisele said. They fed the bird raw meat, lunch meat, bread and water. It only drank up the water. It warmed up to its temporary home which is a large dog kennel. They put some long grass and a perch in the kennel to make the eagle more comfortable.
Bald eagles do not acquire their adult plumage until they are 4 to 5 years old. Until then, many of the feathers are partially white, contributing to a brown pattern with irregular white marks on the breast and wings. Males and females are identical in color but the female eagles are larger. Males weigh about 8-9 pounds while the females weigh 10-14 pounds. Eagles are usually 3-3½ feet long from beak to tail and have a wingspan ranging from 6-7½ feet. This young eagle had a wingspan of about 3½-4 feet.
It is amazing to see such a beautiful creature so close and the family was "pretty excited." Eisele called the DNR so the eagle could be properly cared for. The DNR informed him that it is illegal to possess an eagle even in this case where the bird was injured. The DNR would like the public to know that under no circumstances should a wild animal be taken or helped even if injured. Call the DNR immediately or if unavailable call the sheriff's department.
The DNR informed Eisele that the eagle would be taken to the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul. If the wing has a clean break, it should be able to heal properly and the eagle will eventually be released into the wild.
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