15-DEC-2007
Don cradles her to the house to band her.
15-DEC-2007
She is banded in the kitchen. Mike Lawton, John Mayr, Wendy Mayr and Don Baumgartner holding.
15-DEC-2007
You do not want to get in the way of these talons.
15-DEC-2007
The long two hour drive was a bit much for her. She had to be put in a smaller box on the way to the release site. She did finally settle down.
OUT OF THE BOX and she has an attitude................
15-DEC-2007
Don held her for photos. She did settle down once out of the box.
15-DEC-2007
Don had a great idea, seeing she had never flew to a tree he figured it would be better for her to just sit and find out where she was and then what she wanted to do.. It worked.
He put her on a tree that had blown down and was on a angle. A good place to lift off from when she was ready.
15-DEC-2007
Alone on the branch
She sat on this tree for at least 6-7 minutes. She watched the pair of adult eagles on the other side of the shore. The swan and some 20 geese held her attention for a short time. She eyed the ground for a bit and then turned her eyes upward to watched the trees sway in the wind.
She turned around twice and checked out her new home with quick interest. She was in no hurry to start this new part of her life.
15-DEC-2007
Soon she turned and showed us she was ready to make the leap of faith into her new world.
15-DEC-2007
She turned to her left and leaped into the air like a mallard duck. She went over the tree line and followed the west shoreline of the river.
15-DEC-2007
She flew strong and hard. Her 8 foot wing span did what they were intended to do, lift her up.
She flew about 500 yards and landed in a tree still on the west shoreline of the Wisconsin river.
She spent the longest time in a cage then any other bird at The Feather. She left behind so many memories of her kind. She was one great bird. I will miss her and all the ones that left like her in the past 20 years. A wildlife rehabber has been given so many wonderful memories of things that the rest of you will never know. I have been blessed with the privilege of being with these creatures in my life. They have also brought so many great and caring people with them.
The Feather Wildlife rehab center wishes to thank some of the people that helped to make sure these eagles were released.
First of all to the great group of landowners where the eagles came from, The Pine Lake Property owners. To Marlys Hurst who hosted the nest tree and has since had the parents re nest the last two years on her part of the lake. Thanks for the donations over the years for upkeep of the birds. To Wm and Jan Powell who went with us on the first release and to Art Kucksdorf for the great write up in their newsletter.
To the New London fishermen who supplied us with fresh fish for over two years, Tom King, Steve Jordan, Don Cashmore, and game warden Mike Young who not only brought fish, but deer legs also.
To my neighbors and bus buddies, who supplied the bunnies and squirrels, Wally Heise, Carol Mc Ilraith, Curt Sommer, Lee Volz and Barb Jeffers.
To all the volunteers that make this place work year after year.
Don Baumgartner, Ginny Perrault, Wendy, John and William Mayer, Margie Nelson, Carol Mc Ilraith, Kevin Pullen, Ron Voltz, and Barb Jeffers.
Thanks to Pat Wolff from the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern and Gail Boehm from the Juneau County Star-Times for covering the release.
Last but not least the two young men at the Petenwell dam. To Virgil Schlorke Supervisior for WRPCO for plowing out the lot so we could get to the water site and to Darrin Johnson for keeping us updated on the eagles that visit the dam. Also good to see children at the release.
It has been almost a month now and so far we have not seen or heard from Lightning and I sure hope it is some 15-20 years before we do.
