(e) agle newsletter Wednesday, July 8 2015

www.baldeagles.org 113 Haines Highway Haines, Alaska 99827 907.766.3094 The American Bald Eagle Foundation is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of our national bird and its habitat throughout North America.

In this issue: ° Five eagle rescues in one month ° Two interns of the month

ABEF takes in a record breaking five injured eagles

Christopher Dudley is only 19 and already has enough cred-its to be a senior in college. At 17, Dudley began his studies in biology and Chinese at the Uni-versity of Kentucky. Originally from Montgomery, Alabama, Dudley chose the University of Kentucky because the school offers a Chinese major and had a good biology program. In ad-dition, he was rewarded a four-year scholarship.

Dudley’s Chinese language skills have been very helpful for our Chinese-speaking guests this summer. He’s been able to share his knowledge about museum specimens in Chinese and help our Chinese guests in the gift shop. He’s even creat-ing a Chinese translation of our museum guide!

According to Dudley, when he was grow-ing up, his dad would use various Chinese phrases to get his attention and when he en-tered high school, Dudley decided it would fun to take classes. He became very fond of the language and he feels being fluent in Chinese will open international job opportu-nities when he graduates and looks toward graduate school.

Dudley’s interest in birds began when he was three or four and his father and grand-mother took him bird watching. He’s not sure why he has such a strong attraction to birds but feels it has something to do with their ability to fly.

He said there’s, “something majestic about them, the way they have been able to so suc-

cessfully conquer one of the places humans can’t go, the sky.”

Beyond his love for birds, Dudley comes to the ABEF with previous experience studying different avain species. When he was in ele-mentary school, he created a project to find out whether or not birds could smell their food. The project ended up being published in Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s junior news-letter. Last semester, Dudley began working in a lab at the University of Kentucky ana-lyzing blood samples from blue and golden warblers to look for evidence of hybridiza-tion between the two species.

Working directly with birds has always “been a dream” for Dudley and relationship building with our barred owl, Hunter has made him “as happy as I could ever be,” he

said. According to Dudley, hav-

ing Hunter on his glove for the first time was like, “noth-ing I had ever felt before”. In regard to working with our birds, Dudley said he has en-joyed relationship building with a wild animal.

“It’s a trust relationship with an animal that is so com-pletely different from us, and from our experiences. Then, being able to see how their behavior changes and how they come to trust you the more you work with them is a special experience,” he said.

According to Dudley, he is unsure whether he wants to do avian education and out-reach or whether he wants

his career path to be more research based. He feels the internship at the American Bald Eagle Foundation is a good opportunity for him to hone his skills and “get a better feel for what I want to do”.

While at the ABEF, he’s been mingling with guests and practicing his public speaking. This includes giving presentations in front of 50+ guests. Dudley said public speaking has always been something he’s struggled with, so working at the ABEF this summer has real-ly helped to improve his confidence.

Staff at the ABEF has enjoyed Dudley’s bright demeanor and his willingness to try new things. He’s been very helpful at the front desk and with helping guests in our museum. Welcome to the ABEF Christopher and we hope you enjoy your experience.

If you’ve found an animal that you are positive is injured, there are a few things you can do to help it out.

If you can pick up the animal, make sure you’re wearing gloves or you’re able to cover the animal with a towel or soft blanket. Have a pet carrier, or a cardboard box with holes punched in the top ready for the animal to be placed in. Line the container with a soft towel or newspaper. After placing the animal inside, make sure they cannot get out of the container. Before leaving the site where you picked the animal up, make sure you note exactly where the animal was found and any other circumstances of note that could possibly relate to the injury. Do not give the animal food or water and keep the animal in a dark, quite and warm place away from loud noises. Be respectful of the animal and remember it is most likely extreme-ly stressed, which further weakens the already strained immune system. Wash your hands and call your local wildlife rehabilitator as soon as possible. For wildlife rehabilitators in the US click here. For wildlife rehabilitators in Canada, click here.

If you cannot pick up the animal, call your local wildlife rehabilitator and they can guide you through the process. They may be able to help you by coming to rescue the animal, though this depends on the facility’s staff or volunteer availability. For wildlife rehabilitators in the US click here. For wildlife rehabilitators in Canada, click here.

What not to do: It’s important to recognize that only licensed rehabilitators should be taking care of wildlife. Wild animals require very specialized diets and health care. While baby animals may be cute and friendly, you could be imprinting on them which would prevent them from ever being a wild animal again. Also, be wary of using internet sources for advice. If the source isn’t listed as liscensed or has a “contact us” area, don’t take their advice. Finally, don’t keep wild animals as pets. Beyond carrying diseases or parasites that could harm you and your family members, it is in the animal’s best interest and welfare to return to their native environments where they can find their own food and perform natural behaviors.

What to do in a wildlife emergency:

Within the last month, the American Bald Eagle Foundation has rescued five bald eagles from the Haines Borough. It is unprecedented for the ABEF to have such a high intake of birds in such a short period of time.

The first bird was picked up near Chilkoot lake and called in by Alaska State parks personnel be-cause he was on the ground and walking through the campfire pits looking for food. After staff picked him up we found he was extremely emaci-ated with loads of feather lice. He was sent the fol-lowing morning to Alaska Raptor Center in Sitka, where he unfortunately did not make it.

The second bald eagle was rescued on June 5 when it collided with a truck as it was flying down from a tree. The gentleman driving the truck saw the bird, but unfortunately couldn’t do anything to avoid the collision.

Raptor curator Chloe Goodson and education and outreach coordinator Leia Minch rescued the bird after the gentleman called the collision into the Haines police department. The bird was alive, with its wing wrapped around the truck’s roof rack. Right away we noticed her eye was dulled white and completely clouded over.

Staff was able to untangle the wing from the roof rack and when we brought the bird back to the Foundation for triage, we found an open fracture on the right humerus, a fractured cora-coid and open wounds across the back and left wing. The bird was bandaged, given fluids and the wing was stabilized for a transfer to the ARC. The Alaska Raptor Center did all they could for the bird but unfortunately she died during complica-tions in surgery. The bird had a brood patch—a highly vascularized patch of skin females will get when they have eggs/nestlings to incubate. This indicates she probably had nestlings to take care of. Without the female to take care of the young, the nestlings’ chance for survival is dramatically decreased as the father takes on the extra respon-sibilities of hunting, feeding and incubating the young.

The third and fourth bald eagles were found less than 24 hours apart and less than a mile apart along the Chilkat River Delta. The bird found on July 1 was a juvenile with a clouded right eye and was extremely emaciated. Other than this, noth-ing of note was found on the bird and it was sent

to ARC the next morning. Veterinary staff at ARC found the bird had crep-

itus in the left back of the wing, which is usually indicative of a fracture or a break. At the time of print, she was expected to survive.

Bald eagle number four was called in on a windy, rainy afternoon on July 2. Staff was notified by Haines police department about an injured a bald eagle down along the river. Once staff was able to locate the bird, they ended following him ap-proximately a quarter mile through pouring rain and fierce blowing winds before getting him into a spruce cove where we were able to catch him.

Once brought back to the Foundation, our vet-erinarian Michelle Oakley was in town and able to perform his triage exam. She found he had a luxated right elbow and possible broken ribs near the pelvic girdle. The following morning he was flown down to ARC where results at this time have yet to be heard.

The American Bald Eagle Foundation was noti-fied on the morning of Sunday July 6 of a bald ea-gle that was down in the woods off of Young road. Staff and interns were able to contain the adult eagle (which was sitting in a stream) and bring it in where Michelle Oakley was able to do a basic exam.

She thinks the bird had a possible fracture on the right shoulder girdle. The bird was well fleshed, though its tail feathers were ratty and broken, which leads us to believe the bird may have been on the ground for an extended peri-od of time. The bird was sent out early the next morning to ARC where at the time of print, its fate was unknown.

Staff at the ABEF is unsure of what could be caus-ing the increase in eagle injuries though there is some speculation. One thought is the community of Haines has become more aware of the ABEF’s abilities to rescue and triage birds which has led to an increase in community members reporting injured birds.

Another thought is that because it has been such a warm, dry summer and the salmon runs are later than normal, there has been an inade-quate amount of food to feed all of the birds in the area. Since only three of the five birds we got in were emaciated, we speculate it could be a combination of both theories.

Above: Staff member Leia Minch untangles an adult bald eagle from a roof rack after the bird collided with a vehicle. This was the first rescue of five we’ve had so far this month.

Photo by Cheryl McRoberts

Photo by Chloe Goodson

Above: Our third bald eagle in the last month, BAEA13-15 is secured by intern Lauren Rambo while staff member Samantha Wilson examines him. The juvenile eagle (based on the color of the head and tail) was thought to be a male based on weight.

The American Bald Eagle Foundation welcomes Auburn University student Lauren Rambo. Ram-bo, 23, is a zoology and conservation & biodiver-sity major. This isn’t her first experience with rap-tors as Rambo has volunteered the Southeastern Raptor Center (SERC) since late 2012.

At SERC Rambo works in both rehabilitation and education. Last semester as a rehabilitation intern she was able to help with intake exams, ad-ministering med-ication and help with small sur-geries and raptor releases. She also has experience working in educa-tion with raptors where she would give programs to children’s classes and participate in the “Football, Fans & Feathers” pro-gram SERC offers.

One of her favor-ite birds to work with at Auburn is Spirit, a bald ea-gle. She said Spirit is very talkative like Hans (our Eurasian eagle owl) and there’s something unique about his personality. “That’s why he’s called Spirit, because he has so much of it,” she said with a grin.

Rambo chose to attend Auburn University when she went to a football with her brother (who was attending AU at the time) and she saw an eagle fly at the game. “I have to go there, they have birds,” she thought to herself when Spirit, the bald eagle flew around the stadium at the game.

According to Rambo, her initial love for birds came from her late grandfather. Growing up on a lake in Alabama, her grandfather would always talk about the birds flying around. She fondly re-members how he would have her look through his binoculars and point out the different birds in the area. “He was a very smart man, he reminds me of [our founder] Dave in that he knew a lot

about the land and he had a lot of knowledge to share,” she said. Rambo said when she began do-ing bird research, she felt as though he was the only one who really, truly understood her passion for birds.

Rambo seems to have enjoyed her time in Haines thus far. Her favorite part about being

here is looking up to the sky and seeing all of the eagles in the area. “Back home you look to the sky and think ‘Is that a black vulture or a turkey vulture?’ Here you think, ‘Is that a juve-nile or adult bald ea-gle?’”

When she sees a bald eagle Ram-bo says she gets a feeling she can’t de-scribe. “They are ma-jestic to watch, the leaders of the sky. It’s pretty awesome see-ing so many, espe-cially because they almost went extinct,” she said.

While at the ABEF, Rambo has bene-fited from learning leather working

techniques, about Alaskan mammals and differ-ent forms of restraining the birds for wellness or intake exams. She said, “They are techniques I can use for my future job and which help give me a better understanding of wildlife I am not used to being around.”

After graduation, Rambo hopes to find a job in wildlife education and participate in rehabilita-tion on the side. She said she would prefer to work with raptors, but if an opportunity with another species comes along, she’d be open to working with other forms of wildlife. “Who knows where the wind will take me,” she said. “I may not even end up in the U.S.”

Good luck in your career with wildlife, Lauren. We know you’ll do great. Thank you for your hard work and initiative, and for giving our birds the best possible care and husbandry.

Intern looks to work with wildlife in rehabilitation, education

Above: Auburn Univeristy student Lauren Rambo target training with our Eurasian eagle owl, Hans. Photo by Rachel Womack

Kentucky intern finds his passion in working with birds

Above: Univeristy of Kentucky intern Christopher Dudley smiles as he holds our barred owl, Hunter for the first time. Photo by Cheryl McRoberts

For more information about new our new monthly e-newsletter or to subscribe or unsubscribe, please contact our education & outreach coordinator at leia@baldeagles.org

www.baldeagles.org P.O. Box 49 Haines, AK 99827 click here to support our work.

Are you interested in seeing the world’s largest congregation of bald eagles? The unique hydrogeology of our Chilkat River, allows for a late run of chum and Coho salmon which attracts the world’s largest congregation of bald eagles. At this time between mid to late November, we have anywhere between 2,000-4,000 bald eagles here in Haines and along our Chilkat River.

To celebrate this phenomonon, the American Bald Eagle Foundation holds the Alaska Bald Eagle Festival. This year the festival runs November 9-15 and features photography workshops, avian, wildlife, cultural and geological classes, an eagle release and a banquet/auction dinner. For more information, please click here or call us at 907.766.3094. We hope to see you there! Photo by William G. McRoberts