The Year of the Eagle: Five More Bald Eagles Return to the Wild

If you've been following along with us this year, you've probably noticed we've had a lot of Bald Eagles come through our doors. It really has been the year of the eagle at Back to the Wild, and thankfully, we've also been able to watch quite a few of them go back where they belong.

Over the last week or so, we released five young Bald Eagles that came to us for all different reasons.

Two of them came to us after their nest was destroyed in a storm. Another was found grounded and unable to fly. One came in very thin after somehow finding its way into a house, and another showed evidence of West Nile virus. After spending time in our care, all five eventually made their way out to our large flight cage. That's where they had plenty of room to fly, build their strength and show us they were ready to be back on their own.

Release day starts with getting everyone out of the flight cage, which isn't always the easiest task when you're dealing with a group of young Bald Eagles.

Once we have them, the girls give each eagle one last look over. At this point, we're really just making sure they feel like they're at a good weight, everything looks good and they're ready to get out of here.

Then they're placed into their boxes and we're on our way.

Once we get to the release site, the boxes are opened and we get to watch them take off. After all the time spent caring for them, there's nothing better than watching them fly away and knowing we did what we were supposed to do.

This time, we got to do that five times.

We're incredibly thankful to everyone who makes this work possible. From the people who find these animals and get them to us, to everyone who donates, follows along, shares our posts or supports us in any way, you are a part of these releases too!!

Without you, there is no us for them.

And we're pretty happy to have five fewer Bald Eagles to take care of.