Minnesota Police Help Rescue Injured Bald Eagle
Police officers are used to helping stranded drivers along the side of the road, but it's not every day they get to help a stranded bald eagle.
But that's exactly what happened up in Brooklyn Center, in the northwest metro area of the Twin Cities (a little over an hour and a half from Rochester.) According to a post on the Brooklyn Center Police Department page, they were called to the scene of an injured bald eagle along the side of a local road early Monday morning, which was found by a jogger out on a morning run.
Brooklyn Park officers who responded to the call then proceeded to call the good folks at the University of Minnesota Raptor Center, who sent a trained volunteer to the scene to help the injured eagle. They then successfully transported the big bird to the Raptor Center, when it's being treated for an injured wing.
According to this WCCO-TV story, the Raptor Center believes the eagle may have been injured in a 'territorial fight' and said the female eagle is doing much better as of Thursday morning and will continue healing there before being released back into the wild.
All in all, the story said, everyone here in Minnesota did everything correctly in this situation-- especially the jogger, who called the proper authorities and didn't try to help the eagle themselves.
I've never encountered an injured eagle, thankfully, but I did have two bald eagles fly very closely over my head while I was outside, back when I lived in Wisconsin. My house was near Lake Wissota, east of Chippewa Falls and two eagles had been sitting in a row of pine trees in my yard. When I walked out of the house, I must have startled them because they quickly flew away-- almost buzzing my head as they did it. I gave my chills; they're some BIG birds! I'm glad this injured eagle will is on the mend!
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