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| THE EAGLE |
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Just a few days before Christmas 2009, I went for a hike at Black Hawk Park near Cedar Falls, Iowa. On this day, I arrived at the trailhead and saw a car owned by my friend and Unitarian minister Eva Cameron. I hiked through the woods and when I got to the edge of the river, I saw Eva and her Doberman and she called out, "Eagle." I looked up into the canopy and Eva called out, "No. Lower." Sure enough, right at my head height was an immature, eclipsing Bald Eagle perched on the end of a log that was trapped diagonally between two Silver Maples. I approached it and could see by the undisturbed snow that no person or animal had come near. It let me walk right up to it and my eyes were level with its belly. I could see immediately that something was wrong. Its breathing was labored and its entire body language was flat with blinking eyes. Eva joined me and said that her dog had spotted it. The eagle was in clear distress so I asked Eva to call wild-life rescue on her cell phone. However, being the Saturday before Christmas, no one answered. I thought I would see if I could get it to fly away and "shake it off." I took a stick and pried it under a talon but the eagle did nothing but sigh and blink its eyes. I looked through the trees at the river and could see the yellowing sky of the sun going down. I thought to myself that I did not want to start a new year walking away from this sick eagle. Without telling Eva what I was doing, I reached up and placed a hand on the eagle's shoulder. It did nothing. I reached my other hand for the other shoulder, got a grip and plucked it off its perch. It came very much to life then. Startled, it spun its head around and spread its wings open. This all happened very fast. I kept my grip, spun it around, put it face down in the snow and got on top of it with a foot on each side. I closed its wings and stood up with a full-size Bald Eagle in my hands. Eva had a small blanket that we tried to put over its shoulders and we started hiking it out a mile to the trailhead. It could have spun its head around and struck me in the face so I was holding it out in my out stretched arms but they started burning and getting tired. At some point, I realized my arms had relaxed and the eagle was resting against my chest. The eagle was making this weird guttural purr/growl sound. Half way back, I asked Eva to please take a picture with her phone. When we reached the trailhead, Eva's phone rang and it was Wild-life rescue giving us instructions to put it in a pet carrier and where to bring it. We put it in the back of Eva's hatchback. At her house, her daughter's boyfriend had worked at an animal rehab but when we popped open the back, the eagle was looking a lot more alert, even fierce. It was a big bird. The son-in-law froze but I told him I had done it once already. I reached in and it let me pick it up and carry it to the house. It was then that the eagle gave my bare hand a gentle nip with its beak which my hand will never forget. The eagle was diagnosed with lead poisoning and this is how we learned about the insidious threat of lead shot and slugs from hunting. The eagles feed on the deer carcasses that hunters often dump near the trailheads. Our eagle lived five days before it had to be put down. We also learned that there is a "Good Samaritan" law that allows us to handle protected but distressed wildlife. Eva and I were recognized by the Wheaton Franciscan Foundation for our effort but the local newspaper gave the credit to the Doberman for spotting the eagle. Now whenever I hike at the Cedar River and see an eagle, I believe they recognize me. |