Joe Barth of Alna, along with neighbors and friends, had an experience of a lifetime Monday: They freed an adult Bald Eagle trailing a trap from one talon.
Barth remembers neighbors Rocco Havlar and his son Julian coming to his house on March 29 reporting they’d seen an eagle in distress. The Havlars had been hiking the newly expanded Bass Falls Preserves trail and came upon the eagle.
“They thought he was tangled in a chain on the Sheepscot River bank downstream from my house,” said Barth.
Barth has wildlife experience having been Deputy Animal Control Officer for Alna for 20 years, and said most of those calls were about wild animals. “Technically it’s not the ACO’s purview, but that of fish and wildlife or the warden service,” he said.
Attempting to telephone wildlife authorities, the group spent minutes either listening to answering machines, or being politely handed from one official to the next.
Fearing time was wasting, Barth called nearby friends Dr. Bob Steneck of Whitefield, a marine biologist, and Chris Kenoyer of Alna, who’s avidly interested in birds of prey, and all agreed they would attempt to free the bird.
“We are a pretty good crew,” Barth said. “After hiking down to the river and reconnoitering the situation, we all thought it prudent to have a boat on hand in case the eagle ended up in the water, so we returned to the house and loaded my aluminum skiff into the pickup.” Barth said.
At home, Barth also gathered a logging helmet with face shield, heavy leather wood-stove gauntlets, a big, long-handled fish net and a blanket.
The Havlars stayed with the bird in the woods at the river’s edge to keep track of its movements.
Launching from near Barth’s home, Steneck and Barth rowed downriver toward the Havlars.
Finding the bird by boat and approaching it to some 20 yards, the eagle took off, flying north, trailing several pounds, “of what looked to be a steel leg hold trap,” Barth said. “It could not gain altitude, and after a flight of about 100 yards settled into the middle of the flow. It was floating like a gull and we gave chase.”
While they were trying to close in, the bird again retreated to the 20-yard mark, and unable to fly, began swimming toward the opposite bank, using its wings as paddles, Barth said. “That 20 yards seemed to be his tolerance [of us] point.”
According to Barth, after a tense race, bird and boat arrived at the shoreline almost simultaneously.
Jumping onto the muddy rocks in his homemade protective gear, Barth made a grab at the chain, but fell short. “But on the second try, I gained a firm grip on it,” Barth said.
At that, the eagle’s wings rose like hackles, and it started hissing.
“He had the high ground when he was standing on the shore. I remember thinking he looked like the Presidential Seal, standing there with wings outstretched,” he said.
Steneck then covered the bird’s head with a blanket, and “this had an amazingly quieting effect and we immediately went to work on the business end of the trap. It had closed on just one of the eagle’s talons, slightly above the nail, and after figuring out the workings of the thing, we pried the jaws open and the foot came free,” Barth said.
Barth was surprised the injury did not appear serious, with no blood and only minimal skin damage. Rather than subject the bird to the further stresses of transportation to rehab, Barth and Steneck agreed it would be best to release it. “We removed the blankets and watched as it half fluttered, half hopped up the bank,”
They figure the trap apparently is meant for fox and coyote. Barth said trapping season closed on Dec. 31, nearly three months ago, and trappers were required to remove their traps at that time. Barth said such traps are set to bait – a free meal that no doubt tempted the eagle.
According to Barth what happened to the eagle is an example of bi-catch. Though a trap is set out for one species, it can easily end the life of another. Birds of prey, scavengers, lynx, domestic dogs and cats; none are immune and all are in danger.
He believes, it is just one of a myriad of reasons many call for the abolishment of trapping altogether. “Being involved in an incident which so graphically illustrates the gravity of the problem has for me finally tipped the scale,” Barth said.
His message is not put forth from the moral high ground. He has allowed the trapping of beaver on his property for the last two years, hoping to quell the tremendous damage they have done along a river tributary, which flows through his land. He worries a trap meant for a beaver was the one that caught the eagle.
Barth said, by law, a trap must bear a tag with the owner’s name and address. That it belonged to a trapper from another town was scant comfort, Barth said. Barth spoke with the trapper who set his line on his property, who said after talking about “this whole distressing episode, ‘When it comes to trapping, there is no end to the stories.'”
“All and all this was one of the more rewarding experiences in a lifetime,” Barth said of freeing the magnificent creature. “Some will take that for a dull existence indeed, but to give something so special another chance at living, in, over, and about the valley we are fortunate enough to share; how rare is that?”
