Fighting Eagles Get Tangled – and Rescued

Eagles-tangled-small2-300x225Here’s an amazing story, received this afternoon from Mark Latti at the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. I can’t write this any better than Mark did, so I’m giving you his report and photos just as I received them. Astonishing photos! And lots of praise to all involved, including the good folks at Avian Haven.

Mark Latti’s Report

While their jobs may be very different, many times IFW biologists and game wardens work together to help Maine’s wildlife. Quite often, they work with Maine citizens who also share an equal passion for wildlife as well.

Recently, a homeowner on the outskirts of Millinocket received a big surprise when two eagles crash landed in his front yard.

It seemed that this town wasn’t big enough for the two male eagles, and they were engaged in a territorial battle in both the air and the sky. They came crashing down on Mark Kowalski’s front lawn, and not content to end it there, continued their fight and brawled into the woods, locked talon to talon.

eagles-Helping-hands-225x300Mark called his local Warden, Andy Glidden. Andy and his daughter Mikayla, who is a wildlife student at the University of Maine, went to the home and found the tangle that was the eagles.

It took Andy, Mikayla and Mark over a half hour to untangle and unlock these two eagles. They were locked talon to talon, andas you can see from the phots, one had a talon in the other’s mouth and he wasn’t about to let go.

Andy, seeing the nature of the injuries, called IFW wildlife biologist Brad Allen, who oversees the bird group in our Bangor research office. Hearing the story and the description of the injuries, Brad made a call to Avian Haven in Freedom (www.avianhaven.org), where Marc, Diane and Terry have established a fantastic track record of rehabbing eagles, to see if they would check the birds out.

Eagle-grip-small-300x225That morning, Brad met Andy, Mikayla and the two eagles and transported them down to Avian Haven, where they were given a check-up, their wounds were cleaned, got x-rays and a blood test. With no broken bones and only superficial flesh wounds, the birds were in better shape than expected.

The battling eagles quickly recovered, and later that day, they both passed a flight test (separately, of course) in two of Avian Havens flight cages. Happy to hear the news that they were in good shape, Brad picked them up that next morning and drove to meet Andy and his daughter Mikayla for their release back to the wild.

They released the first eagle near where they were rescued, but since they didn’t want the eagles to become locked in a sequel, they drove the other eagle quite a bit further down the Golden Road in order to ensure a little peace and harmony between the two.

As you can tell from this short video, this eagle was anxious to get back out into the wild:

 

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.