Call me Hal

Today is a very sad day for me and I know for quite a few others also. This morning (Sunday) I got a call from Guy Runco, Executive Director of Bird TLC, telling me that Hal had passed away. I was in such shock I didn’t know how to respond. I spent the rest of the day vegging in front of the TV and eating all the junk food in the house. This has hit many of us hard.

How do you talk about an eagle that was special? He even made me feel special. He could no longer take care of himself in the wild due to no fault of his own. But, he was independent. He knew what he liked and told you what he didn’t like. He still captured magpies that strayed into his mew.

Hal was hatched in the Russian Harbor area of the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge during the blackest days of recent Alaska History. The Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef on March 24, 1989 spilling 10.8 million gallons of Alaska crude oil into Prince William Sound creating the most devastating human-caused environmental disaster.

Hal was found on August 20, 1989 on the beech of Russian Harbor. He was thought to be about four months old. He had light oil on his breast and tail. He was picked up by the cleanup crew and processed through the Seward Bird Rescue Center. He was transferred to Bird TLC soon after. X-rays showed a fractured left wing at the shoulder which was non-repairable. After two months he began training to become Bird TLC’s first education eagle.

Hal has had 6 presenters over the years and has lived at 2 caretakers homes. He also spent some time living at the old clinic on Nielson Way and the current one on King Street.

He has traveled all over Alaska doing education presentations for Bird TLC. With me, he has traveled to Seward, Fox Island, Soldotna, Sterling, Telketna, Tok, Wrangell – St Elias NP, Copper Center, Kodiak NWR and many other places. We’ve stayed in hotels, private homes, wilderness lodges and he has camped in my RV. Hal was a well-traveled eagle.

We did presentations at Boy Scout Eagle Award Ceremonies for the scouts that had done so much for Bird TLC. We also did military retirement ceremonies for those that defended our freedom.

Hal was cared for at Guy Runco’s home. Besides myself, he was also presented by Patricia Garcia and Terri Johnson. In years past he was presented by Heather Merewood, Cindy Palmatier and Kerry Seifort. We all loved Hal, and so did the rest of Bird TLC.

Hal did education presentation for thousands of people. . He enjoyed being in front of an audience. I’d talk about him, other eagles and what’s really cool about them and about Bird TLC. We would do a presentation at Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge and people would line up for an hour afterwards to have their picture taken with him. Hal always had the look “Come admire me. I’ll give you my regal eagle pose”.  As Chris Maack says “He was our ed icon”.

I was the fortunate one who got to do his last presentation at the Bird TLC event of the year “For the Birds”. It was most appropriate that he would get out one last time and show off his stuff. And that he did. He was amazing! He was getting compliment after compliment on how handsome, how regal and how majestic he was. He even called out one time during the event which was not his nature. He knew it was him people wanted to see and he gave them what they wanted. As Elise Patkotak said “Maybe this was the way he wanted to go... still in full possession of his powers and after having thrilled a roomful of people with his presence.”

Nothing impedes his free flight to the heavens now. Thanks for the memories. I’m sure going to miss you my feathered friend. I’ll never look at another eagle without thinking of you. Say “Hi” to Dr. Scott, One Wing and Ol’ Witch.



See you later Cindy

Cindy Palmatier has been the Director of Avian Care since November 2004. Since then she has turned Bird TLC from a local rehab clinic maned by volunteers to a world known avian rehabilitation clinic and avian education organization. She had her hands on the pulse of the organization and many, many birds.

There's no way to tell how many birds she assisted in helping, returning back to the wild or into education birds. In the Alaskan avian world she made a difference.

Cindy has decided to move on and to get more involved with her personal life. Being an avian director can consume a lot of your time.  So far she's has been going fishing with her husband Todd, taking her dog Belle to agility competitions, spending time with her grand baby, camping and you name it.

While she was with Bird TLC, she touched the pulse of the volunteers. She has been teacher. mentor, guide and friend. I've never seen an organization that its volunteers are so involved. She has always taken time for a volunteer who needed it.

If you haven't meet her, you probably seen her on TV, in the newspaper or in magazines. She helped get the word out about eagles with broken beaks, eagle love displays that had gone wrong, eagles diving into trucks full of fish guts, songbirds in the Anchorage area, lost red tail hawks, owls and of course , Bird TLC.

She's going to stay on as a volunteer and assist in hiring her replacement and giving any advice we may need. She's away this weekend presenting Hal the bald eagle in Denali.

As an organization we have a lot of adjusting to do. We always ran to Cindy for help or advice. There are many people at Bird TLC who can do the same, but she was always right there to help.

Cindy, you're going to be missed, but I'm glad you're not going too far. I already miss having my Wednesday morning muffin with Belle.

BE 10-25

It's snowy at TLC

Yesterday in Anchorage, a couple that was out hiking found a snowy owl that wasn't showing much of a defense as they neared it. They caught it and brought it into Bird TLC. During its intake exam, the snowy was found to be extremely thin and emaciated.

This snowy hadn't eaten in some time and it would take a little bit of time to get it back on a regular diet. First we have to ease into it by tube feeding it twice a day with a very nutritional liquid.

Here you have Sharon restraining the owl and holding onto its legs firmly while Cindy inserts the tube and injects its lunch. Once it starts getting a little stronger, it'll be introduced to some mice.

 

Because of its colorization and size, this is believed to be one of this years birds and probably a male. We'll keep you updated on it progress.

alaskamagazine.com

Nothing but tail feathers

This is the view the people of Bird TLC like to see. Nothing but tail feathers from a successful eagle release.

With the help of US Senator Lisa Murkowski, BE 10-26 aka Rocky was released back to the wild at the Potter Marsh Discovery Days Festival.

Quite a crowd was on hand to see the very successful release. Thanks Senator and good luck Rocky!

For more photos of the release, go to the Bird TLC photo gallery here, and Britt Coon's website here.

Immature bald eagle hit by truck

This young bird came to us from the Anchorage landfill. There's easy picking for these guys when food is being a little hard to get. With all of the heavy equipment operating there, it's not the safest place for them to feed or hunt. This guy got hit by a truck. The accident banged him up pretty good. He got a cracked beak and a broken left humerus. Cindy fixed his beak right away, but he had to wait a day or so before his wing was repaired. He needed an operation.

Most operations are done after hours. That's when there's less traffic and interruptions. It's also when we can borrow some tools and equipment from Pet Stop, a local veterinary clinic where Dr. Todd Palmatier works. Most things we have available at Bird TLC, but some of the more expensive equipment we don't.

Not that long ago we had to take these birds elsewhere to operate on them. But with generous donations of equipment, there's not much we can't perform at TLC. X-ray's are the only thing we can't that I can think of off hand. Just preparing a room for the equipment is expensive. Both Pet Stop and PET ER help out with the x-ray's.

Here 4 stainless steel pins were placed in this guys humerus. They will be removed after the bone heals. Todd is putting on the bird what is called an external fixitor. The pins protrude through the birds bones and sticks out through the skin.

An epoxy putty is then mixed up. It's very flexible for about 3-5 minutes and then it dries really hard. It's placed on the pins to keep them from traveling up, down or all around during the healing process.

When the bones has healed, the putty can be broken off with wire cutters and the pins removed with out having to cut into the bird again.

The wing is now wrapped up to protect it from the bird, the bird from it and to hold the wing in position until it heals. Todd then uses a laser treatment to help the healing process.

As of the last report I got, the bird is standing and eating on it's own. X-rays will be taken in a couple weeks to make sure the bone has healed and the fixitor is removed.

For more photographs of the operation (a little bloody), go to the Bird TLC SmugMug operations gallery.

Cindy checks off on Hal the bald eagle

Cindy checked off on Hal the bald eagle on January 7. Hal has been with Bird TLC since 1989. He's a victim of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Disaster. Cindy is our Director of Avian Care and Education. I know both will do some awesome presentations together.

This picture was taken during Cindy and Hal's dry run presentation. I wasn't able to attend the actual check off presentation due to Red going on a vacation.

A beak and pedi

The talons and beak of wild birds in captivity grow and they aren't naturally trimmed as well as in the wild. In the wild they would chew more on bones and such things more than they have the opportunity to do in captivity. Ghost the Snowy Owl's diet is mainly mice and he eats them whole. I vary his diet from time to time with rabbit, chicks, rats and pheasant. He also chews on the astro turf that I have on his perches. But his beak still grows and needs a little help being trimmed or coped.

Ghost has never needed his beak coped before. His talons get trimmed several times a year though. He maintains his beak pretty good. A few weeks ago, I asked Cindy to check out his beak while we were at a presentation. She said he was borderline needing it coped. So I made an appointment for it to be done today. It's not something you can do by yourself and I know of no one in Bird TLC who has more experience performing them or is there anyone I trust more with Ghost than Cindy.

For something that's not natural to him, having a Dremmel run around his beak, he handled himself well. The whole procedure with talon trimming and all took less than five minutes. Ghost is still molting even though it's getting below freezing at night. When he was let up and got back on fist, feathers went everywhere.

So now he has a healthy shaped beak and trimmed talons. I gave him a frozen mouse as a treat. Maybe I should have offered one to Cindy since she did all the work. Well, thanks anyway Cindy!

Busy Wednesday

For starters, we have a Great Gray Owl that came to us from Tok. It was hit by a car and brought in by a good citizen. We were determining if it was flighted or still needed some more r&r. The flight test didn't work out at TLC, so later on, Britt and I took the GGO out to the flight center. We brought her back. She needs some more r&r.

I couldn't go to the Alaska State Fair today. My real job was getting in the way. Cindy is checked off on Ghost (she was my mentor). So they got to go to the fair. In this picture they are getting familiarized with one another again. She does his exams and beak trimming, but doesn't get to work with him much. She reported back that things went real well.

We also got a immature bald in almost a month ago. He had some super lice. They had him so down that he wasn't expected to live. His name is Easy Rider, because a guy wrapped him up in his coat and brought him to TLC on his motorcycle. The lice lost! We took him to the flight center also. He flew right to perch and then chowed down on some salmon we had put out for him.

Last thing tonight, Britt exercised the sand hill crane or was that the other way around? It's getting big. We're discussing it's release options now.

Thanks for your time with us Rollie

I got a call today from Britt while she was feeding at the flight center. Rollie was breathing heavy and it was kind of raspie. My heart dropped and made plans to get him after work and take him to the clinic. Todd and Cindy are on vacation this week, but they were going to come in for him.

After work we drove out to the flight center not expecting the best. I walked up to Rollie in the cell and as he ran he would stop and try to catch his breath. We caught him and placed him in a kennel to transport to the clinic. He was breathing heavy even when he had rested in the kennel for a bit. Things were not looking good at all.

Rollie had come to Bird TLC on 6/22/2007 and was checked in by Mary Bethe, Ruth and myself. He had been hit by a car and had been scuffed up pretty good. There was some head trauma too. He spent some quality time at the clinic and was later transferred to the flight center.


At the flight center we noticed that he tried to fly and would trip and roll over. We couldn't figure what was going on. He also took high careful steps. Ruth nick named him Rollie and it stuck. Cindy came out to the flight center for a visit and to examine Rollie. She found his left wing would come out of joint sometimes. So sometimes he would trip on it and roll and other times he would fly. Nothing could be done so this made him a non-releasable bird.

He had that beautiful mature bald eagle head. This summer being as gorgeous as it was, the sun would shine on him and he looked picture perfect. He also stayed close to Captain Hook, another bird out at the flight center. They just seemed to be buds.

Birds that are non-releasable are placed on what I call Eagle Bay. It's a website that organizations with the right permits and willing to go through the proper procedures can acquire these birds for educational purposes. Even though they are non-releaseable, they are a valuable education tool. It's been hard to place birds this year, we think because of the economy. It's quite a commitment to caretake for one of these birds. He also had some issues that some might not want to deal with. So we took care of him and he shared his eagleness with us.

Dr. Palmatier wanted to find out what had caused her situation. It wasn't asper as we suspected. She was having heart failure. We found out she was female and not a he and she was a much older bird than what we had thought. She had lived a long life. The last of it she was caretaked by thosed who cared for her.

We'll miss you Rollie. Birds like you remind us of why we at TLC do what we do.

Photo Credit: Britt Coon / Bird TLC

All things golden

U.S.F.&W. in King Salmon sent us via Penn Air a golden eagle on Monday. I picked him up late and bedded him down at TLC for the evening. He didn't look the best, but had no obvious injuries and it didn't seem immediate life threatening. I called Dr. Palmatier, told him what I had found and told him what I was doing. He agreed and said Cindy would examine him first thing in the morning.

Nothing was found to be physically wrong with him. Dr. Riddle drew blood and the test showed a very low white cell count. They did a transfusion from "Hook" the bald eagle. Cindy took him to Pet Stop and took an x-ray. Nothing was found broken and no foreign objects. That tells us it had ingested something it shouldn't have.

In his condition he doesn't want to eat. So we have to help him out so he can get his strength back. Today Cindy and Erika tube fed him. None of this is a guarantee that he'll pull out of this and survive. But we'll leave no stone unturned trying to make sure he does.

BE 09-05, a Dutch boy

BE 09-05 came in from Dutch Harbor a week ago. We have been getting so many toxin eagles in the last year, we kind of guessed that he was one. He had the symptoms, stinky green mewts, no energy, won't eat and very easy to handle. If we get them in time, they start feeling better after about 3 days at TLC. This guy wasn't getting any better.

Cindy decided to do a full work up this weekend. Test results, avian trichomonas. Trichomonas gallinae, the parasite causes avian trichomoniasis. When present, it is usually found in the upper digestive tract of many species of doves and gallinaceous birds. Some strains may also produce liver and lung lesions. The parasite is transferred to young from the mother during feeding. Transmission between birds may also occur from contaminated feed and water. Infection by this trichomonad can be fatal. The presence of this organism in doves is a common source of infection of falcons and hawks feeding on them. We don't know how this guy got this.


Treatment has started and until he decides to eat on his own, he gets a little help. DeAnn's been a volunteer a long time and was there to buy food for Bird TLC's Education Raven she caretakes. She got drafted to help out and that's not unusual. As you can see, it takes three people to tube feed an eagle safely.

We'll keep you updated on how he's doing.