Today is a special day; an eagle that arrived here in the fall looks healthy and it looks like he can be set free. When the eagle was found last year, it looked as if it might have been struck by a vehicle. Large portions of his primary feathers (flight feathers) were missing, although his bone structure appeared undamaged. Since eagles lose feathers and then grow them back each year, we only had to keep him safe until he finally grew new flight feathers.
The difficulty is catching him. This eagle is full grown with a pointed beak and talons so strong and sharp they could pierce right through a human hand. For this reason everybody except Barry and the photographer has to watch from the outside.
This aviary (or "airport" as Barry likes to call it) is divided into three sections, so it could hold three large birds of prey. The slits in the walls are meant to imitate the flickers of light a bird of prey would experience flying through a forest. All of the slits are as vertical as possible; this has two purposes: 1) it allows us to control where the birds perch, and 2) it ensures they don't hurt themselves slamming into the walls.
Barry uses a blanket to protect himself from the eagle's talons, and proceeds very carefully. The eagle takes a dive near him and nearly knocks him over, demonstrating the bird's sheer strength. Barry has done this hundreds of times, and he explains that usually they don't dive like that.
And it is all over very quickly. The bird is tagged and then put into a holding cage until he can be taken to the location where he was originally found to be released back into the wild.
Incredibly, one of the eagle's feathers that came out during the struggle is actually longer than my foot. Barry estimated this eagle's weight to be between 10 and 12 pounds. Female eagles tend to be larger than males however (this one was male); this is true for most birds of prey.
The difficulty is catching him. This eagle is full grown with a pointed beak and talons so strong and sharp they could pierce right through a human hand. For this reason everybody except Barry and the photographer has to watch from the outside.
This aviary (or "airport" as Barry likes to call it) is divided into three sections, so it could hold three large birds of prey. The slits in the walls are meant to imitate the flickers of light a bird of prey would experience flying through a forest. All of the slits are as vertical as possible; this has two purposes: 1) it allows us to control where the birds perch, and 2) it ensures they don't hurt themselves slamming into the walls.
Barry uses a blanket to protect himself from the eagle's talons, and proceeds very carefully. The eagle takes a dive near him and nearly knocks him over, demonstrating the bird's sheer strength. Barry has done this hundreds of times, and he explains that usually they don't dive like that.
And it is all over very quickly. The bird is tagged and then put into a holding cage until he can be taken to the location where he was originally found to be released back into the wild.
Incredibly, one of the eagle's feathers that came out during the struggle is actually longer than my foot. Barry estimated this eagle's weight to be between 10 and 12 pounds. Female eagles tend to be larger than males however (this one was male); this is true for most birds of prey.
