Pueblo center helps eagle return to skies

TRINIDAD - Bald eagle 3480 spread its massive wings and took flight Wednesday on the south shore of Trinidad Lake. The takeoff was accompanied by a chorus of "oohs" and "aahs" from 24 firstgraders who came to see the bird returned to nature a month after it was poisoned.

The kids from Eckhart Elementary School in Trinidad also got an up-close-and-personal view of what it means to be wild: The eagle used its sharp beak to take a chunk of skin out of the chin of handler Diana Miller as she prepared to let it go.

"Does it hurt?" one boy asked Miller moments later as students crowded around the coordinator of the Pueblo Raptor Center. It's all in a day's work, Miller assured the kids, rolling up her sleeve to show a scar inflicted by a red-tailed hawk.

The nonprofit Raptor Center took in the male bald eagle in late November after a landowner found it lying unconscious on his land near Aguilar. Colorado Division of Wildlife manager Bob Holder, the husband of first-grade teacher Cherie Holder, said the eagle had been poisoned by feeding on the carcass of a horse that had been euthanized and left in a field.

Holder said the case wasn't that unusual. Eagle 3480 -- named after its case number -- was the second eagle the Trinidad office had taken to the Raptor Center in 2005 to be treated for poisoning. He said landowners and veterinarians often don't realize that Colorado law re- quires that euthanized animals be buried or disposed of in some way that will prevent accidental poisoning of wildlife.

The eagle, on the cusp of adulthood at 4 years old, regained consciousness four days after being brought to the Raptor Center. It turned its beak up at rats and trout, but finally began to eat when a hunter brought in a snow goose, Miller said.

The center normally tries to release birds within days. But the eagle had vomited when poisoned and had laid in it, which wreaked havoc on its feathers. Miller decided to clean the bird and keep it until it could fly easily in the center's 125-foot flight cage.

"It took six of us to catch him today," said Miller. "He was ready to go."

The eagle was among 200 or so birds of prey the Raptor Center takes in each year after they are hit by cars, shocked by powerlines, torn by barbed wire fences or poisoned.

About half of the eagles, hawks and owls don't make it. About 90 percent of survivors are returned to the wild. The remainder have suffered permanent injuries that prevent them from being freed. Instead, they serve as living educational exhibits for the 10,000 schoolchildren who visit the center every year.

That's what eagle 3480 was, at least for a brief time. Wildlife manager Holder had been visiting his wife's class weekly to present a Division of Wildlife video program called "A Home for Pearl," about several children's attempts to release an injured eagle back into the wild.

The program ended around the time the landowner found the poisoned eagle, but Holder thought watching its release would make the lesson come alive for the kids.

After the bald eagle soared out of the hands of Miller and perched on the crown of a tree near the lake's edge, Holder asked the first-graders what habitat the bird would be looking for.

"Food, water, cover, space," they shouted in unison -- twice.

"It's kind of their Pearl," Holder said.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0197 or mckeown@gazette.com

BALD EAGLES

- The bald eagle has been recognized as the country's national symbol since 1782. It is the continent's second-largest bird of prey. Adult males weigh 8 to 9 pounds. Females are slightly larger, 10 to 14 pounds. The birds' length is 31 to 37 inches with a wingspan of 6 to 7.5 feet.

- Historically, bald eagles lived throughout North America. But numbers started to decline in the past century because of nest damage caused by pesticides, human disturbance and loss of trees for nesting habitat. Since the bald eagle was placed on the Endangered Species List and the pesticide DDT was banned, populations have rebounded and the bird is now listed as a threatened species.

- Bald eagles are seldom seen far from water. In Colorado, they are often found near reservoirs, especially where there are abundant fish. In 2001, there were about 51 nesting pairs of bald eagles in the state.

SOURCE: Colorado Division

of Wildlife

To learn more about the Pueblo Raptor center, visit www.gncp.org/

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