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Wounded eagle likely to recover
Published April 7, 2009
ANGLETON — Federal wildlife officials are looking for the person who shot a bald eagle near the Brazos River in south Brazoria County.
Volunteers and Texas A&M University officials in College Station are rehabilitating the bird after two men fishing on the river saw it fall from its nest Friday evening. The bird had shotgun pellets in its legs and abdomen, and a fractured right wing, said Dana Simón of Gulf Coast Wildlife Rescue.
“The fracture was closed,” Simon said. “It’s a very rehabable bird.”
Mark Sydow and Chip Rhone were setting trot lines when they heard a splash in the water near their boat Friday evening. After turning a spotlight on it, they discovered it was a bald eagle and it made its way through the water to the bank, Sydow said.
“We watched it through the night,” Sydow said.
They took a photo of the eagle with a cell phone andsent the photo to Simón. She showed up the next day to take it in, Sydow said.
As they helped wrap the bird’s tail and wings, another eagle flew above them, Sydow said.
“I got to looking and I found the nest,” Sydow said.
Both Sydow and Rhone said they were shocked to find the bird was shot.
“We could not believe anyone would do something like this,” Rhone said. “We had to do something.”
Simon said the nest likely has a few babies in it, and the other eagle was on watch because its mate was down.
Simon kept the injured eagle Saturday and Sunday. She couldn’t keep it longer because she doesn’t have a federal permit to do so, Simon said. She turned the bird over to a permitted College Station woman who is now rehabilitating the eagle.
Shooting a bald eagle is a federal misdemeanor, and a conviction can carry up to six months in federal prison, said Marty Hernandez, special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Houston.
There are a handful of bald eagle nests in Brazoria County, Hernandez said.
“They’re just now established in this area,” he said.
Officials are hoping someone will come forward with information about who might have shot the eagle, he said.
“We would welcome any information someone would have,” he said.
A person who gives information that leads to a conviction could receive up to a $2,500 reward or half the fine issued to the person convicted, Hernandez said.
Those with information are asked to call (281) 876-1520, he said.
Bald eagles are no longer on the Endangered Species List, but they are protected by the federal Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, Hernandez said.
The eagle was taken Sunday by Rebecca McKeever, director of Lone Star Wildlife Rescue. It was being evaluated by Texas A&M veterinarians Monday to determine if the pellets are lead or steel. If they are lead, it could lengthen the bird’s rehabilitation, McKeever said.
“It could take weeks to a month or more to get it out of her system,” she said.
If the pellets are steel, the bird could be rehabilitated in just more than a month and released at the same site in Brazoria County, McKeever said.
“It’s already started to heal,” she said of the fracture.
McKeever said she will keep the bird in College Station as it heals because she has a 100-foot long cage that is 20 foot tall and 20 foot wide. The cage size is needed both to give the bird enough room to start flight again and to satisfy federal permitting requirements to keep a bald eagle, Simón said.
Simón said she is not certain, but she believes the eagle might be the same one she rehabilitated in 2001. That bird was found in Holiday Lakes with a left wing fracture and was rehabilitated in San Antonio.
The bird found Friday had a healed fracture in its left wing in the same location as the bird in 2001, Simon said. The first eagle was released by a rehabilitation facility in December 2002.
The bird found Friday had a tag on it that read October 2002, Simon said.
“Most likely they banded it a few months before it was released. That’s typical,” Simon said.
Officials with a national bird banding lab are trying to determine whether it is the same eagle, McKeever said.
Officials are also monitoring the nest site in Brazoria County to ensure the birds are safe, McKeever said.
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