My dear readers, this is an update on Harriet and her little ones and of course…M15. Gee, it is hard to say Harriet’s name without including Ozzie…. but life goes on, doesn’t it?
Apparently, a couple days ago…one of the parents (and it is thought to be Harriet, which I find a bit difficult to believe) returned to the nest with monofilament fishing line…either still hooked to a fish or just “something” that an eagle would consider nesting material.
And the unthinkable happened. Eaglet 8 or E8 as he is called, the younger of the two eaglets….. got all tangled up in the line and couldn’t move around the nest. Below is a quote from Andy Pritchett (who has the cameras mounted near the nest):
“E8 got his foot caught in fishing line and he was kind of penned to the nest,” said Andy Pritchett, whose family owns the land where the eagles nest. “We started noticing that yesterday morning and today we started to notice his foot was swelling.”
Normally, NO ONE interferes with the nest or any happenings in the nest….they just let nature take it’s course. However, this was considered an emergency and the people from C.R.O.W. who rehabilitated Ozzie and who also were there when Ozzie passed….decided they needed to rescue this little eaglet and remove the line or he would die.
So, yesterday (the 9th of February), emergency workers removed the little 12-day-old eaglet from the nest and took it to the Sanibel clinic to treat its swollen claw and check for other injuries.
The official word from C.R.O.W. is below:
On 2-9-16 E8 was removed from nest by CROW. Fishing line was removed. CROW hopes to renest E8 when it is determined his foot is healthy.
What will happen next is to be seen. But for now, E7 is still in the nest without his sibling and Harriet continues to feed him and protect him. I am sure she is wondering what happened to her baby….but just like Ozzie, she is left to only imagine.
More to come….
Oh no, how much more can Harriet take? I hope she’ll accept the baby back when he is well.
I hope so too Sandy…I hope she won’t reject him/her…and I hope it gets returned to the nest really soon! The doctor said the little eaglet was malnourished and needed hydration. I have to give kudos to the Doctor….she was the one who went into the nest to rescue E8. They felt like a doctor was needed so more damage was not inflicted. Of course, Harriet and M15 were flying above….hence the net to protect? the intruders to the nest.
I guess time will tell if the little one is accepted back into the nest. This little group has had it’s share of troubles, and it’s time for their lives to get back to normal. It kind of reminds you of human lives. Smile!