Wounded bald eagle returns to the wild via Lake End Park

On Friday, while Twitter battles raged and the nation’s future was being decided ballot by ballot, a bald eagle with a broken wing flew back into freedom in Morgan City.

The eagle, its head still covered in juvenile brown feathers rather than the familiar white, was nursed back to health by the Louisiana Wildlife Hospital and released to the wilds of Lake End Park on Friday.

Believed to be a female based on its 8.4-pound weight, she was found in May at the park. She was handed off to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and then to the Wildlife Hospital. The hospital accepts about 2,000 animals a year for treatment and possible return to the wild, according to its website.

The eagle had an injured wing tip, which is difficult to treat for the same reason fractures of the small bones in the human hand are difficult to treat, said Dr. Mark Mitchell, the LSU professor of zoology who also runs the Wildlife Hospital.

The hospital’s goal is to return animals to their own habitat. Typically, wounded birds of prey are introduced to a large flight cage with a human. The bird’s natural instinct to avoid the person gives it some motivation to regain and exercise its power to fly.

Mitchell said the Lake End Park eagle's injuries might have crippled its power to fly. The hospital administered fluid therapy, antibiotics, analgesics and other medication. But the fear was that it would never be able to be returned to the wild and could end up as an educational display.

The eagle came into Mitchell’s care in August. He saw enough hope to recommend they watch the eagle to see if she might recover her power to fly.

She did.

On Friday, Mitchell and several LSU veterinary students put the eagle in a pet carrier and brought her from Baton Rouge to Lake End Park. They placed the carrier on a grassy strip between La. 70 and a tree line along the lake.

Mitchell hoped the grassy area would give the eagle some runway space. He compared large raptors to 747 jets that need room for takeoff.

But the eagle impressed her audience. When a student opened the carrier, the eagle hopped onto the bottom edge of the opening and bounded once onto the grass. She hopped again and struggled for a split second to grab air with its wings.

And she was gone, flying along the ground for few yards and then into a tree.

“She needed very little runway,” Mitchell said. “She took off like a Piper Cub, straight up.”

She perched there for 20 minutes or so, to the noisy displeasure of birds on nearby limbs, and then took a spin around Lake Palourde.

Mitchell said he hopes people will develop respect for large birds of prey, which he said control the population of pests including rats and mice.

And, as he noted on this day when the presidential vote count wore on, the bald eagle is the symbol of the nation.

“Every kid in the U.S. and every kid in Louisiana deserves to see a live bald eagle,” Mitchell said.

He estimated that the eagle ate $3,000 worth of food while in the care of the hospital, which is funded through private donations.

To learn more about the hospital, go to https://www.lsu.edu/vetmed/veterinary_hospital/services/wildlife_hospita....