Rare event

Today was an amazing day after all the sadness of the past few days. Pat Hnilicka of the USFWS in Lander drove all the way up here to transport DEUCE back to where he was found in April. What's so mind boggling is that this wonderful adult Golden Eagle's injuries resulted from electrocution. Because that is such a devastating thing to happen, the bird rarely survives.

In this case he not only survived but today flew off in superb form to join his mate. When DEUCE arrived he was very starved and there were burn marks on his right wing at the elbow. It took some special hands on care to get him past the worst part but then he never looked back. Today he weighed 8.4 pounds, a very healthy size for him.

Unfortunately the still shots of the release didn't work out but Pat did manage to take some video of it. My friend Susan Osborne was able to isolate one of the frames to add them to this post.