bird taken to Waynesboro clinic
Canoeist: 'It raised its head and looked at me'
A bald eagle spotted by a paddler at the edge of the James River near the Monacan Bridge was in “pretty rough shape” at a Waynesboro animal clinic Friday night.
Lee Williams paddled his canoe just below Lynchburg Wednesday afternoon when he first noticed the bird lying on the bank and half-covered in mud. He contacted the Upper James Riverkeeper, Pat Calvert, who contacted the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
“I could just see it over by the log bent over. At first, I thought it was dead. Eventually it raises its head and looked at me,” Williams said Friday.
DGIF officials were not able to locate the eagle Wednesday or Thursday after Williams, of Campbell County, returned to check up on it. He went back again Friday, as did DGIF authorities, who transported the eagle to the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro late Friday afternoon.
“At this point it’s not really clear what’s going on,” said Amanda Nicholson, the director of outreach at the center.
Nicholson said the eagle is exhibiting neurological symptoms and has injuries on one wing on the left side of its head. Veterinarians suspect the eagle ingested a toxin or sustained trauma causing the symptoms, she said.
“He’s actually had a couple seizures since he’s been here. … His blood work shows that he does have a low-ish level of lead in his system. Sometimes high levels of lead can cause neurological problems. It’s just kind of at our threshold that we would go ahead and treat,” Nicholson said.
Nicholson said the sex of the eagle cannot immediately be determined by external characteristics and the bird is not stable enough for further examination, X-rays or anesthesia. X-rays would show whether lead was recently ingested, she said.
It is being treated with anti-seizure medication, fluids and basic supportive care.
“Sometimes they recover and they do bounce back, and sometimes they have permanent neurological problems if it is a neuro-toxicity issue,” Nicholson said.
Eagles often ingest lead fragments from bullets left behind in unrecovered game or guts cut from a hunted animal.
“Eagles are scavengers. They’ll just come along and eat that stuff. We’ve seen some eagles with some really severe cases of lead toxicity,” Nicholson said.
Along with being a symbol of the United States, the bald eagle is an indicator used by the James River Association to determine overall river health.
They were largely knocked out by DDT, formerly a common pesticide that was banned in 1972. The chemical worked its way into the food chain and caused eagles to lay brittle eggs that crushed under their weight. The birds could not reproduce and dwindled.
They have begun to return to the James River watershed after being completely absent from its waterways in the mid-1970s.
“It’s pretty much a success story. The Endangered Species Act was written and passed because of that species,” Calvert said.
If the bird recovers, it will be returned to the wild.
“That’s where he came from. We’re just trying to get him well and back into the environment where he’s comfortable,” said Lt. Chris Thomas of DGIF.
Williams, an avid paddler who put 200 miles on his canoe in September, spotted the eagle about a quarter mile upstream of the Monacan Bridge not far from the nesting spot of a known breeding pair. Calvert said it appeared too old to be their offspring and may have migrated to the area.
“It eventually did stretch up. It was right at the waterline with its feet in the water and kind of sunk in the mud and its head was tilted over the bank,” Williams said. “I’ve seen this with deer that they have been shot. They stand on the river for days.”
On Thursday, Williams approached the bird and again called Calvert, who contacted DGIF. He then waited on the other side of the river.
“After about an hour I heard a big ruckus and I realized the bird was screaming,” Williams said. The bird’s wings were flapping but then it calmed down, he said.
DGIF located the bird on Friday and then transported it to the center for an examination. Age could not be determined, but bald eagle’s white head feathers come in at the age of 5, so the bird is at least that age.
“It takes a while for an adult to get to that point, so we kind of want to do what we can do,” Calvert said. “It was removed from the Endangered Species List a few years ago. We want to keep that upward trend going.”
http://m.newsadvance.com/news/paddler-finds-injured-bald-eagle-on-james-river-bird-taken/article_de3692f8-4b42-11e4-98b7-001a4bcf6878.html?mode=jqm_gal pic here
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