Today was an exceptional day. After flying 3 Red-tail Hawks, a Great Horned Owl, a Broad-winged Hawk and 2 Bald Eagles, the flight crew was given the opportunity to release two Bald Eagles over the St. Croix River. The Raptor Center has a large number of birds that are ready or will soon be ready for release so we helped make some room in the clinic.
The 2 birds were quite special for me as they were both ones that I helped rescue. The immature was rescued from a chimney top in August. After catching his talons in some grate work above the chimney, this bird almost severed his leg trying to free himself. The clinic staff did an amazing job repairing his leg and removing a fish hook from his stomach. I brought the adult bird in with some sort of food poisoning several weeks ago. He too made a full recovery.
We decided to have Terry, our flight crew chief and Dawn, a friend of the crew, release the 2 raptors. We decided to release them at the same time and try to capture both in a single photograph. Here is the results. A very special moment!!!