Second valiant effort to save eagle falls short
It was a story of great hope and raptorian perseverance.
Wounded by a BB gun and with a pellet lodged in his wing, the bald eagle could not fly. Nor could he find water or food, dehydrated in the heart of winter, 2014.
He had landed in Oak Lawn, where the mayor and others took the eagle to the miracle workers at Willowbrook Wildlife Shelter in Glen Ellyn.
"This was in the coldest part of winter and the poor eagle was just emaciated," Mayor Sandra Bury told staff writer Marie Wilson. "We called animal rescue and they recovered the eagle and brought it to this wonderful rehabilitation program."
It truly is pretty wonderful what they do at Willowbrook, one of the few wildlife rehabilitation facilities in northeastern Illinois equipped to treat native and migratory birds. Each year, the center takes on more than 8,700 cases involving birds, mammals and amphibians.
In this case, two months of rehab included surgery to remove the pellet and then giving the eagle a 100-foot circular cage to regain his flying ability. Staff members at Willowbrook referred to him as "feisty" because he wasn't the greatest patient, ripping his bandages off at one point. I'm taking editorial license here to give him that nickname, Feisty.
But on a Friday morning that April, the DuPage Forest Preserve District, which oversees Willowbrook, held a ceremony at one of its biggest forest preserves near Wayne, releasing the eagle back into the suburban wild, not far from a water source and some good fishing.
Eighteen months later, the raptor returned, and again, it was not under happy circumstances.
Feisty was found Tuesday morning near the southbound ramp of I-55 at Cass Avenue in Darien. Initially, it was thought that he'd been hit by a car, but there were no broken bones or other signs of trauma. So the Willowbrook experts suspect he was sick, maybe from West Nile virus.
Feisty died the evening of the day he was found.
"It is terribly disappointing because he was such a success story from 2014," Sandy Fejt, site manager at Willowbrook, told our Robert Sanchez the next day. "A number of folks went through a lot of effort. It was exciting to see him released into the wild. You hope for the best."
As is the case with seemingly just about all animal stories we do, this one proved to be among our most popular of the day. Several online commenters offered their condolences on the passing of Feisty.
He has been taken to the University of Illinois, where a necropsy will be done to determine the cause of death. Test results for West Nile virus, bird flu and Newcastle disease are expected soon, but more extensive testing on tissue samples will take longer.
We'll keep you posted on the results.
jdavis@dailyherald.com