It was an emotional release. Volunteers and staff from the Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society gathered in Burnaby's Central Park on Tuesday to release an adult bald eagle that's been in rehabilitation for months.
The female eagle was brought into care, suffering massive head wounds, presumably after a fight with another eagle over territory or a mate.
Burnaby resident Laurie Hill found the eagle while visiting Central Park with a friend approximately six months ago.
"We thought it was dead, it was all crumpled up," she told the NOW, as a small crowd of onlookers gathered in the park. "But we knew we couldn't leave it there."
Hill called the Wildlife Rescue Association of B.C., which took the eagle into care and transferred it to the Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society in Delta, where the eagle spent the next several months recovering. The society specializes in rehabilitating birds of prey.
Martina Versteeg, a staff member with the society, said the eagle was in very bad shape.
"She had extremely terrible wounds on her head. She was pretty much scalp," she said. "She pretty much seemed dead."
It took a while for the eagle's wounds to heal, and she's been practicing flying while in rehabilitation.
"She's just growing her feathers back on her head, so she truly is a bald eagle," Versteeg said.
Society volunteers released the eagle close to the park's south pond, and she flew from the large kennel over to a nearby tree, attracting attention from two other bald eagles and a gang of crows. The crows gathered round the eagle, cawing and nipping at her tail feathers, but the eagle stood her ground.
"She's doing the smartest thing," Versteeg said, explaining it was best for the eagle to just wait until the crows calmed down. "She'll be fine."
It wasn't clear if Central Park was the eagle's original home or whether she had been defending her territory or potential mate or encroaching on another's.
"There might be one guy still waiting for her," Versteeg said. "If this isn't her home, she'll find her home pretty quick. She'll remember where to go."
Versteeg said the society releases birds all the time, but this one was special.
"She's got the spirit and the will to live. Not every bird would survive that head injury. That's why she means so much to us," she said.
