An injured eagle flies away home

University of Missouri's Raptor Rehabilitation Project releases Rogue Saturday, March 25, 2017 at the Pikes Camp Access near Wardsville. The bald eagle was set loose near the Osage River area where she was found injured in December.
University of Missouri's Raptor Rehabilitation Project releases Rogue Saturday, March 25, 2017 at the Pikes Camp Access near Wardsville. The bald eagle was set loose near the Osage River area where she was found injured in December.

Despite Saturday's rain and gloom, about midday the hopes of a physical rehabilitation patient took flight - literally. The patient was a bald eagle.

About 30 people came to the Pikes Camp Access on the Osage River Saturday to watch a fully matured, female bald eagle named Rogue be released back into the wild by the University of Missouri's Raptor Rehabilitation Project.

Project's manager Abigail Rainwater explained Rogue came into their care in late December, after she was found on the side of a road, missing the first knuckle of the third digit on one of her feet.

The wound was badly infected, to the point where Rogue was too weak to fly. Rainwater said they're not sure what happened to her, but it's possible given the clean breakage of the bone that she got caught in a snap trap.

"Rogue has fought a long, hard battle" of rehabilitation, Rainwater said. Rogue's rehab before her release included antibiotic treatments and exercises to make sure she could effectivly perch, fly and grasp prey in her talons.

The raptor family of birds also includes hawks, owls, kestrels, kites and vultures. Raptors can easily have grip strengths with their talons of hundreds of pounds per square inch. Eagles are the biggest raptors in Missouri, Rainwater said, noting they can weigh 15-17 pounds and have tip-to-tip wingspans of 8-8 feet.

Rainwater said staff keep all interactions with the birds in their care to a minimum, in order to keep them wild and able to survive on their own. The project has received six bald eagles since January, and has released two in the last four months - "a big eagle year for us," she said.

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The program has a 35-45 percent release rate, she said. A small percentage of birds are too far gone when they receive them, and they don't make it.

Others can't released be because the extent of their injuries prevents them from being able to effectively survive in the wild, like broken wings that make flight impossible.

With up to 30-year lifespans in captivity, if staff think there can be a good quality of life for these chronically-injured birds out of the wild, they can donated to zoos or used for the project's own educational programs.

As forested environments are replaced with more urban settings, Rainwater said common injuries the program sees in birds are the results of collisions with cars and getting caught in fences. If people see an injured raptor, they can call a hotline to report it, and they will either be walked through how they can help, or project staff will come out and get the bird.

"We always try to put them back where we found them," Rainwater said of the raptors they release. This is done to keep the birds in line with their natural migratory paths, and to keep them out of the territories of other birds. Rogue is banded with a tag, but does not have a GPS tracker placed on her.

When the time came, Rogue was carried in her kennel from the back of a minivan to the boat ramp along the river. As the kennel was taken apart and Rainwater held onto Rogue in her arms, Rogue showed she very much still had the wild in her.

The fiesty creature screeched a few times, and at one point lunged at Rainwater and pinched her cheek in its beak.

"Her neck's a lot longer than I anticpated," Rainwater said, fine except for a small cut on her cheek.

A little bit of blood drawn didn't stop her from admiring the eagle as she let it go to take flight and perch in a nearby tree, or from worrying its weight was too much for the rotten-looking branch the bird chose for getting its bearings.

All went well though, and after a few minutes, the eagle took off again in the rain and soared further up the river. Rainwater said the wet weather is perfect for eagles; it's when the fish come out.

People who see injured raptors can call 573-882-7821, or 573-882-4589 after 5 p.m. and on weekends to report them. For the sake of preventing injury of birds and people, it is not advised to handle wild raptors. It is also against federal law to handle or rehabilitate the birds without a special permit. The Raptor Rehabilitation Project was started in 1972, and is maintained by all-volunteer staff, and financial and technical support from MU's College of Veterinary Medicine, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Missouri Department of Conservation and community donations.