Raptor was released into the wild Oct. 21
Published in the Oct. 29 – Nov. 11, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
Photo courtesy WERC
Colleen Grzan releases Morgan, the golden eagle that was injured and spent several weeks at WERC rehabilitating before it was released back into the wild Oct. 21.
In a field belonging to Morgan Hill farmer George Chiala, Morgan was released into the wild Oct. 21. The golden eagle had spent several weeks at the Wildlife and Education Rehabilitation Center recuperating from a wound.
The raptor was found in the same field the night of Sunday Sept. 28 as the WERC volunteers were closing down the wildlife demonstration exhibit at downtown’s Taste of Morgan Hill, said WERC executive director Sue Howell.
“We get a call from (volunteer) Teresa Stephenson and she had got a call from Fish and Game that there was an eagle down,” she said. “And of course it’s getting darkish and everything and they said it was in a field and Animal Control needed our help.”
In the dark, the WERC volunteers drove around the farmland on the east side of the valley and drove into a field where they found that Fish and Game had already captured the eagle and had placed a blanket over it to calm it down.
“She’s a beautiful bird, she’s just magnificent,” Howell said. “We kept her quiet for the evening, making sure she had no life-threatening wounds. The next morning, Dr. Suzanne Colbert (a vet at Princevalle Pet Hospital in Gilroy) came up and examined the wound and cleaned it out. Puss came out, it was very gory.”
The bird’s air sac had been punctured and she had a lot of lice on her feathers.
“At first we thought the wound was made by a bullet, but there was no exit wound and so we weren’t sure,” Colbert said. “She was probably impaled on something sharp.”
The bird was given antibiotics to treat the infection in its abscess. Morgan was placed in a large enclosure to allow her to build up her flying strength. On the morning of her release, she was caught by WERC volunteer Colleen Grzan with a net and Colbert examined Morgan to make sure she was ready to go back into the wild. The eagle weighed 8.24 pounds, large enough to survive in the outdoors. She has a wing span of 8 feet.
Frank Fontozzi holds Morgan inside the WERB enclosure. Photo by Marty Cheek
“She looks beautiful,” the veterinarian said. “She’s recovered from her injuries as far as I can see.”
Morgan Hill residents David and Marcia Nelson won a final bid of $325 in an auction at a recent WERC barbecue event that allowed them to attend the bird release.
“I’ve always been interested in wildlife and nature. I’m an outdoors person,” Marcia said. “The opportunity to see this was too good to pass up. David had walked outside so I was sitting there (during the auction), thinking, hmmm, I’m going to do this.”
David said, “I came back into the building and she told me that there was this auction and I knew right away that she’s done it because it was the kind of thing she would bid on.”
The Nelsons have long supported the efforts of WERC.
“For me, it’s the fact that Sue and her band of volunteers have committed themselves to take care of the wildlife,” Marcia said. “We’re actually living in their habit, and to me it’s very important that if something happens, we have people to rescue them and heal them and hopefully set them free — although I know that’s not always possible because of their injuries.”
People are fascinated by wild animals, David said.
“Every time WERC shows up with the demonstration animals — like at the Taste of Morgan Hill — it’s always the most popular thing there,” he said. “When you come where they have the animals, they have crowds of people oohing and ahhing. It’s a chance for people to see a lot of the animals that live around us but they hardly see.”
At the field, Grazn released Morgan gently as people clicked cameras at the release of the eagle.
“There’s a technique to letting a wild bird go,” Howell said. “You don’t just throw it into the air. You allow it to take off when it’s ready. The poor bird doesn’t know where it’s at. It’s depth perception is off. And so it’s flying, but it doesn’t know where it’s going…. We learned to put the bird on the ground, and then the bird will then decide where it wants to go.”
