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If you have ever seen a Wedge-Tailed Eagle I'm
sure you would agree that they are incredibly impressive. And regal.
And beautiful. And huge!! Get the picture - I am absolutely captivated by
them!! In fact, the reason why I became a wildlife carer in the first place
was because of the Wedge-Tailed Eagle. Since I was in my teens I wanted
to get close to these birds, and..... well, quite a few years later, I have founded
my dream! This is just
a short story about an eagle I had in care a few years ago. She was my very
first and boy was she a beauty. Unfortunately, she was paralysed in both
legs - cause unknown - and we didn't expect her to live. I really wanted
to give it a try though, so we put her in a huge plastic crate (with no lid),
put a big log in there for her to rest on, and some water (which she loved flicking
everywhere!). She had to be housed inside as she was quite sick and needed
to be kept warm. On top of the crate we pegged some bed sheets, and on top
of them we put our internal clothes lines - she wasn't very strong so we knew
that this would hinder any escape attempt. Feeding
time was most amusing to Todd. I had to lean right inside the crate to feed
her delicious morsels (?!?) of chopped up rat. Most of the time she took
the meat from my hands but sometimes, when she was feeling moody, I had to force
feed her which meant using both hands and balancing on the crate edge with my
belly - you could probably imagine the sight!!
The
eagle was in care for a number of weeks and I could see that she was slowly gaining
strength. Needless to say Todd and I were delighted! At about the
end of the 2nd week she started perching on the log and looking quite indignant
for being kept in a crate.
Anyway, Todd had to go away
for work for a few days so "Big Bird" and I were left alone. I
came home from work one afternoon to find the crate.......... EMPTY!!!!
The clothes lines I'd so carefully placed on top of the crate were all askew and
the pegs holding down the sheets had all popped off and were on the floor around
the crate. I must have looked stupid as I stood there staring into the box! I
looked to my right, into the kitchen - no bird. And then to my left into
the lounge room - there she was, sitting on the back of my rather expensively
re-upholstered lounge - looking right back at me! Have you ever seen a Wedge-Tailed
Eagle sitting in your lounge room? Quite an amusing site.
It
took me 3 attempts to catch her, shaking violently as I was! If I'd had
my wits about me I would have gone to fetch the camera and started clicking away,
but all I could think about was eagle poo - it's so big - I didn't want my lounge
ruined! I finally managed to get her back into the box and phoned Brian,
an expert raptor carer, who was training me at the time. He came straight
up to collect her so that she could be moved into the flight aviary for the next
step in her rehabilitation. The
eagle was kept in care for a few more weeks so that she could be exercised to
regain her fitness. Eagles spend much of their time hunting for food and need
100% fitness to survive in the wild. Each
day I would exercise her by making her fly up and down the length of the flight
aviary. I also made sure that she could fly straight up to a perch from the ground
as this is a very strenuous movement requiring strong muscles - if she couldn't
perform this skill then she wasn't ready to be released.
After another few weeks we could see she was ready to go. We got hold
of a big cardboard box and put her in it, sealed with an awful lot of packaging
tape! The box was put in the back of a ute and a tarp was placed over the
top of the box. When you put a wild animal in a dark enclosed space it normally
quietens right down - but not this bird. The
whole way back to her territory (where she was found when injured) she banged
and crashed and cursed in bird language. We got to the spot and Brian pulled
back the tarp and just like a Jack-in-the-box she pushed herself out the top of
the box and sat on the side of it for a couple of seconds. She turned around
to look at us with an expression as if to say "you pigs!" and then unfurled
her huge wings and took of over the horizon. No goodbyes. No victory
lap. Just gone.
So, not such
a short story after all (I got carried away!), but it is one of the really good
ones!
I will never be able
to describe the feeling of watching an animal that you have saved, fly (or hop,
or scramble up a tree) back into the wild again.
Absolutely
awesome!! | 
