Oak Mountain Eagles

One of the nicest State Parks we’ve stayed in on our travels is Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham, Alabama.  Facilities there include a small lake with a nice swimming area, an 18 hole golf course, and an equestrian area where you can rent a horse or board your own.

It is also the home of the Alabama Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, which takes in almost 2,000 orphaned or injured birds a year.  The idea is to get them able to be released back into the wild, but they do have some permanent residents, like the totally white vulture we saw there when we visited.

The rehab center has taken in two bald eagles in the past week.  The first was a young male less than two years old.  The other was an older female with a band on her leg. When they checked the band and figured out how old she is, they were amazed.

A fisherman had seen her hopping around on the bank of Lake Guntersville in apparent distress.  When he saw her again the next day, he contacted the game wardens who captured her and delivered her to the rehab center on Thanksgiving.

"We looked at the information on the band and she had been banded so long ago -- with a band today there would be a URL to contact, a website to go to or perhaps a phone number to call," facility director Doug Adair said.

"Her banding had taken place so long ago, the instructions were if you found this bird and you have this information, please mail the information to Washington, D.C. It turned out she had been banded in Tennessee in 1987."

For a bird that has been living in the wild, the age was impressive.

"We were surprised to discover that she was at least 27 years old," Adair said. "And she appears to be in great shape and feisty and active, and has many more years to live, we believe. We were surprised to discover that band. We don't often see birds that are almost 30 years old."

Scottie Jackson, the Alabama Wildlife Center's director of education and outreach, was amazed by the bird's age. "In the wild, obviously there are a lot more selective pressures. You have to find your prey. You have to be a very effective hunter. It is not common to see 27-year-old eagles flying out in the wild, so it's a pretty amazing thing."

The old girl has a couple of broken talons, but other than a really sore foot, she seems to be in good condition, so her prognosis is very good.  She’s almost four feet long from beak to tail and has a wingspan of almost eight feet.