Rehabilitated bald eagle takes flight, thanks to Audubon Society of Portland

Thanks to Audubon Society of Portland for sending along this new photo of a bald eagle taking flight shortly after rehabilitators released it near Longview, Wash.

The mature eagle was treated for months at Audubon's Wildlife Care Center before Friday's release. Blood tests and X-rays indicted it suffered from lead poisoning, a common problem for raptors in the Pacific Northwest.

Typically, according to wildlife experts, birds are poisoned when they ingest animals shot with lead ammunition or feed on gut piles left behind by hunters using lead ammunition. Most lead-poisoned birds die in the wild, becoming food for other animals and spreading lead toxicity through the food chain.

http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2013/09/rehabilitated_bald_eagle_takes.html

Hearts, birds soar as volunteers release rehabilitated Utah raptors

 Orem • With a chorus of one-two-threes to help it on its way, a turkey vulture beat its massive wings, sank to the ground in front of a crowd of well-wishers and took off into the smoky atmosphere in the hills above Orem on Saturday.

The bird, gender undetermined, was one of three vultures, a Cooper’s hawk and a Swainson’s hawk released by members of Great Basin Wildlife Rescue, a tiny group of volunteer and licensed animal rescuers who rehabilitate and release hundreds of injured birds back into the wild every year.

"It’s just amazing," said Andalya Hall, 15, a Great Basin volunteer and student at Springville High School, who released another vulture. "After helping with these birds, to feed them, clean their pens, weigh them and then get to release them is such an amazing feeling."

In one way or another, each of these raptors — yes, vultures are raptors, just like hawks, falcons and eagles — would have met an untimely end if it hadn’t been for Great Basin’s volunteers. Two vultures had been shot; the third was found with a broken wing. The Swainson’s hawk tumbled from its mother’s nest when it was a chick. The Cooper’s hawk had been struck by a golf ball and, after being released once before, crashed into a Great Basin building last week.

Continued:  http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/54947934-78/birds-basin-raptors-hawk.html.csp