Countdown Wed. - dramatic eagle release

The countdown to Eagle Festival continues....

the scene at our place hadn't changed much...

Today though was the official kick off, that being the release of not one but two Bald Eagles....

this was to take place at Sandpiper Golf course, and the weather even cooperated as school bus loads of children were greeted by 'Harrison'

and would be on the foreshore of the golf course.

here, eagle biologist, David Hancock is addressing the crowd with 'Harrison' listening attentively.  The fellow with the backpack is Dr. Christian Sasse who was blogging live on his Periscope.tv.

and there they go.  Everyone was watching the first bird that had flown when the second was released.

Rob from O.W.L. then brought out Sonsie the 14year old non releasable Bald Eagle who has been coming to Eagle Festival since he was a baby so the school kids could see an adult bald eagle close up.....

but then word spread that something was wrong....we had all watched one of the birds fly up and perch in the trees on the golf course....

but the second released bird had been flying low over the water when some gulls flew at it, it ducked and caught a wing and ended up in the water.  The water there isn't that deep but it was quite a ways off shore...

when it became apparent the bird wasn't going to get out on it's own, my husband went home (we live less than a kilometer away) and got our canoe....

so he and Rob headed out....by now the weather had turned back to it's usual rain....

the circled out and managed to maneuver the bird towards shore.....

where it was captured and checked over and pronounced fit, just very wet, so they took it to one of the greens on the golf course

this is the last picture I have but it did fly up into one of the trees on the course, so it was decided to just leave it.  It will be monitored over the next few days but it is expected it will be fine when it dries out (hard to do with all the rain).

The entire release and almost hour long rescue is on Dr. Sasse's blog.