For those of you that read the SAPark email list, you will have already have read the story about the injured eagle and the nesting owl. Here are the photos:
February 22:
FYI, we discovered an injured adult male bald eagle in our next-door neighbors' back yard in South St Anthony Park late yesterday afternoon. An artist in the Chittenden Eastman building who is also a longtime volunteer with the Raptor Center on the St Paul Campus, responded right away and took him to the raptor center. Word from there today is that the eagle is carrying a bullet, and has a badly bruised, but not broken, wing. He is apparently pretty healthy and alert, aside from the bullet wound and injured wing. We believe that after being shot, he may have wandered into the neighborhood and landed on the powerline transformer in the alley behind our house, since another neighbor saw him there Tuesday afternoon shortly before the power went out on our block, with a loud bang from the alley. There was also a small spot of blood in the alley about 30 feet from the transformer.
They apparently don't remove bullets from eagles for physiological reasons, but will watch him for signs of lead poisoning. Not out of the woods yet (so to speak), but we're keeping our fingers crossed. I believe the raptor center doesn't want to field a lot of calls, so please refrain, and I will post to the listserv again, when I have an update.
-Gregg
February 25
For those of you who may be following the eagle story, I'm sorry to say that the Raptor Center had to euthanize our eagle yesterday. The burns from the encounter with the powerline transformer were just too severe to continue to treat. Everybody did what we could, and our consolation is that he was at least well cared-for in his last few
days, and we saved him crows (who were already gathering when we found him). Thanks so much to volunteer Linda Hatfield, and the staff from the Raptor Center.
-Gregg
February 25
At the risk of sounding like a fabricator, there is now a great horned owl sitting in a fir tree in Hampden Park this morning, probably no more than 200 feet from where we found the bald eagle last week, and the crows are going nuts over him. He at least looks good and healthy. I've got some nice pictures of both the eagle and the owl, perhaps Amy will be able to post them on the community council web site (once the server is fixed, which was crashed when the eagle knocked out the power last week).
Our raptor volunteer friend says owls also nest this early, and we are hoping he (she?) will nest nearby, and help reduce the %**&@# rabbit population this summer. Another good reason to focus on replanting trees in the park and the neighborhood-- if we're going to be a refuge for varmints, we need to welcome their predators as well...
