NORDLAND — The moment Dr. Scott Ford opened the cage door, the black shadow of a bird darted into the sunlight of the warm Tuesday morning.
A bald eagle drifted low about 100 feet above the fading grasses of the Fort Flagler State Park beach, and landed on a log reaching out above the water.
The bird looked back at a small crowd of admirers, posed for the cameras for a minute, ascended into the air with a growing confidence, and headed toward the park treetops that it involuntarily abandoned almost four months ago.
In late May, park volunteers Lexie and Hoby Rawlins spotted the bald eagle hopping and dragging its broken wing on the ground, unable to fly.
Hoby, having spent most of his life on a farm, was calm and thought that the bird hit the tree in high wind.
Lexie, “a city girl,” sympathized with the wounded bird more openly.
“I sat and talked to her. She was weak and wet,” said Lexie,
“Her eyes! You would look at her — she was beautiful!”
The couple contacted animal services.
Fractured wing
Veterinarian Ford, who treated animals for the past six years and aims to specialize in birds, agreed to operate on the eagle’s fractured wing.
With no signs of shrapnel or open wounds, the doctor guessed that a car likely hit the bird.
“Unfortunately, they can’t tell us,” Ford said.
Chimacum Valley Veterinary Hospital provided the operating room.
The surgery was long, and the doctor worried that the muscle loss would be significant enough to prevent the bird from flying ever again.
However the broken wing began to heal.