FRANKLIN, Pa. — Two bald eagles were returned to the wild on State Game Lands 214 in Crawford County in late May after being rescued and rehabilitated by Pennsylvania Game Commissioners.
On May 21, Game Commission staff and rehabilitators released an eagle rescued as a grounded nestling in June 2017, then cared for in captivity for 49 weeks.
An 8-week-old eaglet was placed with a set of foster parents May 23, after its Mercer County nest blew down in a storm
Both of these returns to the wild went off without a hitch.
“Diligence on the part of our field staff and close working relationships with rehabilitators have allowed us to successfully reintroduce two eagles to the wild,” stated Northwest Region Director Rich Cramer.
Eaglet
The young eaglet that lost its nest in a swamp along Millbrook Road in early May was on the ground when Deputy Tom Jones arrived.
Since there was no nest to return the eaglet to, Jones contacted Carol Holmgren at Tamarack Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center in Saegertown.
After almost three weeks of monitoring and individualized care, the eaglet was cleared for reintroduction to a foster nest on State Game Lands 214 at Pymatuning Reservoir.
Game Commission tree climbers would help complete the eaglets’ journey to a new nest and awaiting foster parents.
Foster eagles
Biologist Tim Hoppe and habitat management worker Mark Kahrer have returned displaced eaglets to nests in the past and were called upon once again.
Hoppe had scouted the new nest and determined that the two eaglets within it were about the same age as the eaglet they hoped to introduce, which would allow them to compete on even footing for food in the nest.
Game Commission Land Management Group Supervisor Chris Deal and Deputy Jones guided Holmgren and Game Commission Region Biologist Roger Coup to the nest site.
Hoppe ascended the large maple tree and pulled up the eaglet, which had been wrapped in a blanket and carefully placed in a heavy-duty backpack tied to a rope.
Hoppe removed the eaglet from the backpack and introduced it to its new siblings. The entire process took mere minutes, minimizing the stress endured by all eagles involved.
For the once-grounded eaglet, it was a relatively quick return to the wild.
Recovery
The adult bald eagle released on State Game Lands 214 May 21 had a longer road to recovery.
That eagle was found June 19, 2017, by several kayakers on the Connoquenessing Creek, near Evans City.
It had fallen out of its nest and was not healthy enough to be returned.
Game Warden Randy Pilarcik took the eaglet to the Tamarack Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center, where Holmgren determined it had a bacterial infection and several deformed and damaged feathers.
After 49 weeks of care and treatment, Tamarack Center volunteer Riley Walsh, Holmgren and Land Management Group Supervisor Deal released the yearling female eagle near Pymatuning Reservoir.
Protected
In Pennsylvania, the bald eagle is protected under the Game and Wildlife Code, as well as the federal Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Protection Treaty Act.
As recently as 1983, there were as few as three nesting pairs of bald eagles statewide, all of them located in Crawford County. Today, Pennsylvania has nearly 300 nesting pairs.
Bald eagle recovery was fueled by the Game Commission’s reintroduction program, in which bald eagle chicks taken from Canadian nests were raised in captivity with minimal human contact, then released.
Between 1983 and 1989, 88 eagles were released into Pennsylvania.
The bald eagle was removed from the federal endangered species list in 2007 and was removed from Pennsylvania’s threatened-species list in 2014 due to its population gains.
