Release of two Eagles

April 19th was a day to remember. Two Bald Eagles released. One the oldest known in our state at 20 years old (had been saying 19, but its been with us a year and 2 days so is a year older!) and the other a baby from last year's hatch. Wish you each could have been there, but for their safety they were released in a restricted area of the Game Lands at Pymatuning. WCO Olexsak did an excellent job overseeing the release. 

 Taking off! This bird did a nice flight. Flew toward some trees, then banked left over a pond to a nice landing in a large tree. Later it took to the skies again. BTW, for it's size this bird could either be a large male or a small female. Staff had gotten in the habit of referring to it as male, but when banded as a hatchling May 11, 1992 it was believed to be female based on size so in the news release we will refer to it as female. All volunteers and staff had worked so hard with this bird, it was an emotional release.

 Here is the Juvenile - taking off!

  
The Juvenile also started by flying towards some large trees, then without stopping flew over the pond. Here it is flying strongly. A joy to see.

The Juvenile learned to fly in our flight building so this was it's first time to fly with sky overhead. It did several figure eight flights low over the pond. It had never flown over a body of water before and seemed to be debating whether it was a good place to land. After a wingtip touched the water, it thought better of the idea and flew to land in a nearby tree.