Bird Treatment and Learning Center: Bald Eagle BE 09-31 aka Avalanche released

Sometimes we're so busy, some of our eagles stories don't get told. Not that their story is boring or not important, just that we have a lot going on.

Avalanche came to us back in January. He and 4 other eagles got caught up in an avalanche. He was the only survivor, but was pretty well beaten up.

A few weeks later while he was at the clinic, I had picked up another eagle coming in from Kodiak that was not doing well. It was found to be very anemic and needed a blood transfusion right away. Avalanche became the donor and an eagle hero. Little did we know that later on this eagle, aka Lunch Date, would be the replacement release eagle for the Powwow.

After about a month Avalanche was transferred to the flight center.. He couldn't fly yet because his flight and tail feathers were all busted up, but if he stayed at the clinic too long he would probably unintentionally injure himself there. The plan was to let mother nature take her coarse. Hopefully the next molt replaces all of the damaged feathers or enough for him to be flighted.

Come about May he went into a molt and the blank spots started to fill in. One day while at the flight center he surprised us and flew to perch, so we knew he was going to do well. We decided to release him in Fairbanks at the Powwow, so Britt and I caught him and she took him to the clinic to spend the night. When they went to take his id band off, they found an abscess on his right foot that had to be removed. Needless to say, the Powwow release was moved to another eagle, Lunch Date.

On Thursday he was cleared to be released, so we decided he went next. He was released on Saturday at Kulis ANG Base for part of a retirement ceremony for Chris. His wife Andie had purchased the release at our auction and decided that would be an awesome way to celebrate it.As you can see in the photo, he can fly just fine.

A beautiful release and an awesome ceremony! Congratulations Chris and Avalanche!