Together Again
Sometimes, Mother’s Day is for the birds.
On Catalina Island, a female bald eagle sat on an egg for weeks--not knowing it was a fake. Dutifully, she was still sitting there Sunday when a group of wildlife biologists who had taken the real egg about three weeks ago started an advance toward her nest again.
The biologists carried telescopes, binoculars and cameras to see whether the mother would accept her 17-day-old eaglet--which she would see for the first time.
“Its chances of survival are good if its parents accept it,” said biologist Peter B. Sharpe of the Avalon-based Institute for Wildlife Studies.
In many ways, it was a miracle that the eaglet was alive. Eagles on Catalina Island lay eggs with shells that are much too thin, a legacy of the toxic chemical DDT. The pesticide was banned about 25 years ago in the United States because of its life-threatening effect on wildlife.
Despite the ban, levels of DDT remain high in the gulls and seals that eagles munch on. The chemical is also found in the herring the birds eat.
The work of the biologists is crucial if eagles are to survive on Catalina.
More than likely, Sharpe said, the nesting parents would have crushed the egg if biologists hadn’t swiped it. The egg was flown to the Bay Area and hatched at the San Francisco Zoo. It was the fifth hatching in 37 tries.
Sharpe said the birds are placed back in the nest in the third week of life. They don’t learn to fly, however, until they’re about 2 years old, biologists said.
Before a young eagle takes off for the first time, biologists must sneak back to the nest yet one more time, to affix a tag, Sharpe said.
After being in the company of humans for all of its short life, it was important Sunday for the 17-day-old eaglet to at least recognize its mother. To that end, Sharpe and other biologists took turns early Sunday feeding the bird with a rubber puppet that looks like an adult eagle.
On the menu Sunday morning were square chunks of herring and quail. The eaglet was fed from its perch at the edge of a flatbed truck.
After breakfast came the moment of truth. Although the eaglet couldn’t fly, Sharpe had to--and said he was determined to take the young bird back to its mother.
Sharpe had it planned out. He strapped himself to the end of a 100-foot-cable that was attached to a helicopter. It was piloted by Glenn Smith, a stunt flier who said he has lowered letters onto the Hollywood sign and worked on movie shoots such as “Deep Impact,” the current thriller.
Donna, Sharpe’s wife, watched the chopper round one of the hills on the way to the nest, high on a cliff on the island’s rugged eastern side. The hills were rife with clumps of prickly pear cactus. At a distance, her husband looked like a G.I. Joe doll attached to a toy copter.
“I was a little concerned when he first told me he was doing this,” Donna Sharpe said. But after a few practice runs--when Smith was asked to drop him precisely at the open door of a parked car, and did just that--she was relieved.
Peter Sharpe, however, said he was far from calm when the flight began.
“When you first take off, it’s a little bit nerve-racking,” Sharpe said.
At the nest, the mother eagle hunkered on her fake egg, squawked like mad and rose to attack the helicopter.
“I was worried that she would try to mix it up with the helicopter and I had this guy down there,” Smith said. “I couldn’t worry about the bird. I had to let it do what it was going to do. I had to worry about [Sharpe].”
For his part, Sharpe said he focused on a fast switch, on quickly swapping the fake egg for the real-live eaglet: “Do this fast. Where’s the bird? I hope she accepts it.”
Of course she accepted the eaglet. It was Mother’s Day.