The Picayune Item
VICKSBURG —
A bald eagle nursed back to health and released in June is back with a Vicksburg wildlife rehabilitator.
The young female was found, unable to fly, on July 23 at Tara Wildlife Preserve, where she had been released 33 days earlier, Becki Bolm said. The bird now has a large bruise and sore at the bend of her left wing, she said.
Bolm, a state and federally licensed wildlife rehabilitator for 13 years, and Jackson veterinarian Adrian Whittington, who X-rayed the bird, don’t know how she was injured but know she was not shot.
“He said he hoped she’ll heal and can be released again,” Bolm said.
Bolm says staff at Tara has been watching out for the eagle since her release on June 20. She says that in mid-July, they began to notice her on the ground and flying low.
In about two weeks, the bird will be taken to Louisiana State University — which treated her after the first capture — to see if she’s healthy enough for release.
“If she is not releasable, I can train her to a glove” for feeding and care, Bolm said.
Bald eagles were removed from the federal endangered and threatened species lists in 2007, but remain protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. It is illegal for anyone to possess the birds, their feathers, nests or eggs without a permit. Native Americans, however, are able to keep bald eagle feathers, which are used in sacred ceremonies and customs.
This eagle was first brought to Bolm on Aug. 13, 2009.
Tara Wildlife President Gilbert Rose found the bird unable to fly and being fed by local fishermen on the sprawling wildlife preserve between the Mississippi River and Eagle Lake, about 30 miles northwest of Vicksburg.
What took longest that time was regrowing the tail feathers necessary for flight.
“She’d been on the ground for about three weeks and was just so malnourished, very close to death when we got her,” Bolm said. “She had a lot of catching up to do, and she molted twice before she actually got her tail feathers back.”
The bird doubled its weight to 10 pounds in the 10 months she spent in her first rehab.
