A man drives along the South River in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. He is looking at the bank lined with meter-high reeds. Suddenly the man stops.
He has spotted two eyes in the reeds. His attention will prove to be a lifesaver.
The accident
A few hours earlier, an accident occurs on a nearby highway. A bald eagle is hit by a car and injured.
The police officer on the scene directs traffic around the injured bird. In the meantime, the eagle manages to drag itself off the road and hobble towards the South River.
A short time later, bird rescuer Donna Cole learns about the bird.
In the undergrowth
The area between the road and the river is a wooded landscape full of undergrowth and thorny bushes. It is impossible for Donna to follow the eagle from the highway.
She hopes that it will travel all the way to the river and she can then rescue it from this side.
The search operation
Donna has no boat. So she contacts the Arundel Rivers Federation. Here she not only gets the boat she needs, but also a helper: John Flood.
„John was immediately on fire for this adventure,“
donna reports later. The search initially leads to a frustrating situation. Donna and John do manage to locate the injured eagle.
However, it escapes from them and escapes into the impenetrable woodland, which makes the search from the road impossible.
The rescue
Donna and John are planning what to do next when Donna receives a call from a bird of prey rehabilitation center.
The employee on the phone tells her that a kayaker has spotted the eagle on the other side of the river.
Donna and John start another rescue attempt, this time with success.
Donna loses a sneaker in the water, but what is a shoe compared to a life?
The eagle is now being cared for at the same rehabilitation center that helped save him.
You can check out the rescued eagle on Annapolis Creative ’s Facebook channel.
Source: The Dodo
