Nest Tribune Bay Tennis Court - 2014 - 2015 season

[boonibarb]

 
Compared to some of the other Nests we document, this one is very new.
We have only two seasons of ground obs for this territory, which you can read about & find the link to here.

[boonibarb]

 
Today i was just cruising through coffee & oatmeal when i got a call that there was an injured Eagle near the Tribune Bay Lodge!
This Eagle was on the ground beside the road, & the finder also thought maybe she*d heard a Cougar call!
So i called Reg at MARS to give him a heads up, & to see what he thought about all this.
First of all, he said leave your Dog in the car, because he looks too much like a Deer to a Cougar!
Okay!
Second, he said Cougars stash & bury their food, so beware, in case the Cougar is nearby, & perhaps this Eagle wasn*t injured at all, but instead was feeding.
It was really good to hash things over with him first.
i called wren, & we loaded the kennels & nets into her truck & went off to meet the person who had spotted the Eagle, so she could show us exactly where, & assist in the capture.
i drove past the entryway driveway to the Lodge, where wren had parked, & parked across the road.
i had left my windows open so the the smell of my Dog would waft out the windows & help keep a potential Cougar away, so right away as i was parking i noticed very strange calls coming from the area!
What the heck was going on here??
The original finder had said the mate of the downed Eagle was in one of the Trees above, was that who i was hearing?
These were some very strange calls!
i went running towards the sounds, & when i got closer, i realized there were TWO Eagles down, & they were talon locked!
Here is the foto the finder took, when she first spotted what she thought was an injured Eagle.

november 1 2014 8:30 am - talon locked Eagles by Bethany



Now, it*s a bit hard to tell from this foto, even if you try to blow it up, but i believe this is actually TWO Eagles, not one.
There is just too much Eagle in that pile to be only one.
You can see one right wing extended way out to the Eagle*s right, you can see one white head, & one splayed set of tail feathers that seems to be pointing the wrong direction to be attached to that Eagle*s head.

So, these two Eagles are clamped on to each other by a foot or by both feet, & they are freaking out trying to separate, & that is what all the vocalizing is about!
i was reminded of this video taken by Gregg with his cellphone when he was in Helliwell Park one day.
He saw two Eagles in the top of a Tree, one was upside down hanging from the other by a clamped foot.
Listen to the vocalizations!
We heard something like this today, only way more.

March 28, 2013 10:07 PM(date & time not bang on) - Two Eagles entangled in Helliwell - by Gregg

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm4x-eV0RzY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm4x-eV0RzY</a>
 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/43214021@N08/15688713082/

[boonibarb]

 
The vocalizations were incredible, & i shouted to the other two that i had the Eagle in sight.
i was running towards them, & something must have clicked in one or the other or both, to quit hanging on, because something very dangerous was approaching, me!
Suddenly they were apart, & one Eagle very quickly went striding & flapping away til he reached an opener area & was able to fly away.
The remaining Eagle appeared injured.
He was also walking, but not really flapping, just sort of using his wings a bit to give him more momentum.
i maybe should have waited for the other two so we could have circled the Eagle & blocked the exits, but i wanted to not lose sight of him as he ran away, so i went running after him.
He was having trouble maneuvering, but was still managing to really get away from me.
He had a sort of lumbering limping gait, there seemed to be trouble with the right side or the right wing.
He got himself into an open clearing & then onto the driveway & was just able to get enough momentum that he could get off the ground & soar away.
DARN!
Off he went towards the water.
We three walked that way too, looking for him in the bushes or Trees, but it was hard to see as the sun was low & in our eyes.
We got down to the beach & saw no sign of him.
wren went to get binoculars, our helper went home after showing us the foto she had taken.
i decided to look at the spot where they had been, to see what i could see & to look for a Cougar stash.
i had totally forgotten about being afraid of a Cougar!
At the site, there were some gorgeous mushrooms, that wren said were edible.
Maybe she will remind me what they are called?
Some of them were broken at the stem.
There were also numerous little feathers on the ground & caught on bushes & grass, down & small covert feathers.
But i saw nothing like a Cougar stash, & as wren pointed out, no smell of one, either.
So we concluded that these Eagles had fought, talon locked, & crashed to the ground!
One seemed fine & flew away, but the other was at least badly bruised, if not broken or sprained or dislocated, also perhaps punctured from talons.
i*m a bit foggy on the next sequence of events, but i believe wren came back from her binocular look saying she had seen an Eagle perched low down in a Tree.
Low down would fit the Eagle we were looking for, who had been on the ground & appeared injured.
She also mentioned two parallel fences, & that maybe the Eagle had gone down between them.
These are fences that separate the Lodge property from the next door neighbour.
You could hear a radio playing from that person*s yard/home.
So someone was there.
wren offered to jump the chain link fence, while i was to walk outside the fence & try to come at her from the other end, hopefully trapping the Eagle between us for capture.
Ah, that would have been perfect.
i walked that whole fence line with great dismay, seeing how thick the clump of Blackberries was, between me & the chainlink fence.
So i kept going til i found a spot where a Tree had come down & crushed the fence.
Should i go over the fence there?
But then i realized the fence ended, not too much further from where i now was standing.
& i couldn*t believe my eyes, but when i peered through the last bit of fence, there was the Eagle standing on the lawn!
i shouted to wren, & she was on the other side of the Eagle, coming towards me.
We had him!
wren was on the lawn, approaching slowly.
i was up on a sort of berm, the Eagle had been up there but then jumped down into the yard to get away from me.
wren told me to hold up, & she approached slowly from the other side.
There was lovely thick Salal there, if we could herd the Eagle into it, it would slow him down & make him easier to capture.
But no!
He went motoring off on foot & found another clearing & a driveway & i went running after him.
wren was too far away, but she shouted go! go! go!
Well, i*m not much of a runner anymore, but i went lumbering after that Eagle with my net outstretched.
He was so close!
But he outran me & was able to get air & float off away from us again.
Darn!
We went hunting for him down the driveway, which ended up being the driveway to the High Salal properties.
It felt hopeless.
But we lucked out & spotted the Eagle perched low down in a Tree again!
Maybe 15' up, which is low down for an Eagle.
A car was coming down the driveway so wren flagged him down to explain what was happening & to enlist his help.
i was standing there keeping the Eagle in sight.
He seemed very flighty & nervous, as though he might just take off at any moment.
i remembered that i had my camera on me, so while i waited, i might as well take some fotos!
But then i decided to take a video.
Here is the Eagle.
wren is talking to the man driving the truck.

november 1 2014 11:46 - injured Eagle in High Salal driveway


<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6OF5R2YZoY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6OF5R2YZoY</a>

[boonibarb]

 
See what i mean about flighty & nervous?
The eyes are huge & on high alert.
To me, there seems to be blood dripping from the left nare, & also blood in the right commissure & on the right side of the beak.
You can see him fold up his right wing, & something looks wrong in how he does it.
& all the feathering of that wing looks rumpled somehow.
This Eagle may just be bruised, but a little exam by MARS, & then a short holiday with good food would do him good.
So we need to capture him!
We decide to surround the Tree & encourage him to leap down to the ground where he will have a hard time moving away from us, so then we can capture him.
We keep moving closer & he keeps looking as though he is about to jump.
But then he doesn*t.
i notice he is wary of my net, so i reach it up, to encourage him to jump.
& he does!
wren said he made as though to land on the ground, but then spotted her, & decided to fly over her head instead.
Darn!
This indeed feels hopeless.
i thought the Eagle had flown down the driveway into where all the homes are.
But wren & the man say he flew the other way, down the driveway & out to the road, where he crossed the road & flew off into the Trees.
Darn!
We are just not going to be able to catch this Eagle, when he can keep flying away from us like this.
We ask the man to keep a lookout for us, & i call the people who live near where the Eagle was last seen.
Either he will heal himself over a few days & be fine, or something is very wrong & someone else will hopefully spot him & call us.
i sure wish we could have caught this Eagle.

[Rajame]

Thank you thank you thank you for all your efforts!

You may get him yet!

[boodle317]

Wow booni...another great rescue attempt.  Wish you could have gotten him.  Thank you again for all you do to help these guys.

[Cawatcher]

booni and winterwren What an ordeal! Thank you so much for your attemps and sharing the amazing story with us

[amazedbyeagles]

Booni and Wren!!!!  The Heart of Hornby!  So much wanting to help the injured eagle!   I love your passion and your caring!  The eagle will either be fine, or you'll see him again, in dire need.  And you'll be there when he really needs you!  Thank You!!

[passerine]

How frustrating & worrisome. Hopefully someone can spot him grounded before he gets too weak or heals. There is hope.

[NancyM]

The eagle in the video has the "look of Dad"  about him (to me)  - perhaps one of their offspring?  I hope he will be rescued, if needed.  Good effort, booni and wren!

[winterwren]

While we were looking for the injured eagle, I saw four more adult eagles in the area. There was some trilling from time to time and I witnessed one more altercation, right above where the two eagles had fallen in a talon lock.

At one point I found one eagle on this inland perch tree.
I didn't know it yet, but he was looking directly to where the injured eagle was perched on a low branch.

November 1, 10:59 am



Off he flew, over the injured eagle's perch and toward the ocean. 
11:00


ps: Booni, those mushrooms were Shaggy Parasols, Lepiota rachodes. Another reason to return to that area...

[winterwren]

Yesterday at dusk, I got a call from a neighbour of this territory. She told me that an eagle was sitting on the ground near her garden... And seemed unable to fly. It was already getting too dark to find an eagle, and she told me she would check again in the morning. But this morning the eagle was gone. I decided to go have a look regardless.

This is a small community garden, away from houses, in a clearing in the woods. All was quiet when I arrived. I took my capture gear just in case, and started slowly circling the clearing, threading through the edge of the woods, stopping every few paces.

Suddenly I hear a flutter and here was the eagle, flying toward me! He landed about 10 feet up on an alder. He seemed unsteady on his feet. His wing seemed to tuck better than it did on the first day, but it's still a bit crooked: the primaries end up tucked under the tail.
I sat on the ground and watched with my binoculars for a long time. Then the rain stopped and I decided to tiptoe to the truck and get my camera.

The eagle had moved to a larger branch and turned around, but I was able to get a few photos, at high ISO unfortunately, so they're grainy on the larger sizes.
In this one you can see the primaries of the right wing under the tail. There is some redness inside and around the nare that was all bloody on the first day.
November 3, 12:06







He got restless, had a poopshot, and took off the way he had come, getting some elevation even through the woods and landing higher up in another tree, maybe a hundred feet away.

I went and found his droppings... Note the green fecal matter, which I'm told is a sign of starvation.




Here's where he landed, and where I left him eventually. I definitely am not catching that eagle today. I'm still hoping he will make it out there, but wouldn't be surprised if we get another call eventually. The neighbours are watching for him.

[CanadianRaptorman]

A wing tucked up but under the tail can occur naturally on occasion or unnaturally if the wrist is injured (bruised, perhaps a broken bone) but this would often affect the bird's ability to fly (and especially gain elevation). The green in the fecal sample only indicates an empty stomach not necessarily starvation. There is a significant difference. From what you have stated the only way you are going to "catch" a bird with those conditions is with a food laiden trap and I'm not sure that falls within the mandate of any rehab permit. Continued observation is required to further assess the situation and perhaps some clarification on the permit protocal might be wise.

Bill

[amazedbyeagles]

Thank you so much for caring about this eagle!  ♥♥♥

[auroradawn]

Thank you for the follow up wren, I sure hope the eagle will be OK and I know you & booni will continue your efforts to help.