Mending bald eagle chick returns its home

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A bald eagle chick named Skye will return to its native Santa Cruz Island home this afternoon, its broken wing mended after an unusual May 19 nest attack drew international attention via YouTube.

The 14-week-old chick received a celebratory send-off today from about 20 third-grade students from Lemonwood School in Oxnard. The students and their teacher, Regan Nelson, have been monitoring Skye’s welfare as part of a class project and sent get-well cards to the bird during its recovery, said Yvonne Menard, spokeswoman for Channel Islands National Park, which encompasses Santa Cruz Island and four other islands off Southern California. “They were very upset when this snatching occurred,” Menard said.

This morning, however, the students viewed Skye first-hand for the first time at park headquarters in Ventura. Officials were to take the chick to the island by a 4:30 p.m. boat, Menard said. Skye was one of two chicks injured when a young bald eagle attacked their nest at Pelican Harbor on the island.

The two chicks fell more than 30 feet to the ground, and the impact fractured Skye’s wing and cracked the other chick’s beak. Hundreds of bald eagle enthusiasts watched the attack as a public webcam captured live footage, and the video clip became a “most watched” feature on YouTube, according to the National Park Service.

The webcam, called EagleCAM, is part of Channel Islands Live, a partnership of the park service and the Ventura County Office of Education. The two chicks were nursed back to health by Dr. Scott Weldy at a veterinary center in Orange County.

The chick that suffered a cracked beak, christened Spirit by webcam watchers and A64 by scientists, was released in early June at a so-called “hack tower” on the island. The wood towers, about 30 feet high, are used for releasing captive-raised chicks to the wild. Spirit took its first flight July 1.

Skye, aka A65, will also be taken to a hack tower and is expected to fledge in two to four weeks. Transmitters have been inserted in the backs of both birds so that scientists can monitor their activities, Menard said.

The chick’s wing was mended using pins and wire, Dr. Peter Sharpe of the Institute for Wildlife Studies said in a news release. “Now that the pins have been removed this eagle is ready to return to the wild,” Sharpe said.

Bald eagles had vanished from the Channel Islands by the early 1960s, killed off by DDT and other contaminants released off the shores of Southern California between the 1940s and early 1970s. Most of the DDT came from a major producer of the pesticide, the former Montrose Chemical Corp. east of Torrance, released through sewer lines and dumped near Catalina Island. A government effort called the Montrose Settlement Restoration Program has been working to restore the population of eagles and other wildlife.

As part of the program, a total of 61 eagles were returned there between 2002 and 2006. Nearly 40 bald eagles live today in the Channel Islands National Park, and four nests were counted there this spring. A discussion board is also available about the Catalina eagles. http://z7.invisionfree.com/CHIL_EagleCAM/index.php?s=22bc4bfcd1a5f43f76e50da50a073c08&re --

-- Deborah Schoch