Raptor Rescue : Rare Young Golden Eagle Gets Second Chance at Survival

He was found nearly two weeks ago, dehydrated and weak from starvation. Now, “Tommy,” a rare 2 1/2-foot-tall golden eaglet, is getting his health back in preparation for his return to the wild.

“When we got him he only weighed 6 1/2 pounds,” said Scott H. Weldy, a veterinarian and director of the Orange County Bird of Prey Center here. “Now, he’s about 7 1/2 pounds, and we’re looking at releasing him when he’s about 8 pounds, maybe in another four weeks.”

Tom Herzog, a biologist for an Orange County construction firm, captured the 4-month-old eaglet by tossing a tarp over him. The eaglet was found July 24 struggling in a fenced-in reservoir at a Transportation Corridor Agencies’ construction site in east Anaheim Hills.

“It was so weak that he was to the point that he couldn’t fly,” Herzog said. “It let me walk right up to him and pick him up without any struggle.”

Biologists say it is unusual to find an eaglet away from its nest and alive because their numbers are so few.

“Finding any single eagle is important,” said Peter H. Bloom, a biologist with the Center for Natural Lands Management Inc. in Santa Ana. “But it’s especially significant with eaglets because they have a high mortality rate and with [urban] development, their foraging and nesting habitat are being encroached on.”

In Orange County, there are four known nesting sites--evidence that four pairs of golden eagles currently call the county home. The nests are found on the rim of the Cleveland National Forest, near where the reservoir is located. About 500 pairs of golden eagles can be found in the entire state, Bloom said.

“In any one year, there could be one pair or maybe no pairs nesting in Orange County,” Bloom said. “And that makes this bird very significant to us.”

Although able to fly, adolescents need to learn how to hunt and survive. When eaglets fly or drop from their nests, often they fall victim to dogs or coyotes and sometimes are hit by cars while eating carrion on roadways.

A year ago, an injured adult golden eagle was brought into Weldy’s center after it flew into power lines. The eagle recovered.

Scott Harris, a state Department of Fish and Game biologist in Long Beach, said people should not attempt to go near or pick up an eaglet. If they do, they should only help the bird up to a tree limb or rock ledge away from dogs.

“They have extremely strong talons and can easily cut into your hand or arm,” Harris said.

While at the Lake Forest center, Tommy is getting a steady diet of small rodents and birds. In the wild, adult golden eagles, which can weigh 12 pounds, eat mostly rodents, rabbits and snakes, but they also have been found to consume coyote pups.

One of the problems the eaglet faces at the center is that the amount of time it spends there can reduce its chances for survival in the wild.

As a precaution, the staff at the Lake Forest center has reduced the amount of contact the bird gets with humans to minimize socialization. Weldy added that he keeps from 35 to 40 wild raptors at the center and to prevent them from becoming accustomed to people, their cages have no windows.

On Thursday, Bloom will fly in a helicopter and scout a nesting site near the reservoir where the eaglet was found.

“There is one nest there up in a rock ledge that I have been studying for 10 years, and I think that is where he came from,” Bloom said.

Once the nest is found, the eaglet will be released but with an electronic collar to monitor its activity.

“In three to four weeks we intend to reunite it where it came from,” Weldy said. “Despite the human contact, which we believe has been minimal, the likelihood of him being accepted by his parents is good.”

Bloom added that the chance of the eaglet surviving in the wild in its weakened condition “was zero.”

“At least he has a 50-50 chance now,” Bloom said. “If we had left him there alone one more night, he might have gotten snarfed by a coyote.”