JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A bald eagle is recovering at a local bird hospital after being found shot in the woods behind a Clay County home. It's the second bald eagle that's been injured in the area in the last week.
"The eagle had fallen just the other side of the neighbor's fence that's through the marsh here," Bryan Frederick said.
Wading through a swamp to save a bald eagle wasn’t on Frederick’s to-do list when he and his family traveled from Kentucky to spend the holidays in Florida. But when his wife told him to investigate something happening there, that’s exactly what he ended up doing.
"By the time we crossed the creek and got over to the fence, (we found) there was a bald eagle laying on the other side of the fence that had been shot," Frederick said.
He didn’t see the bullet hole at first, but as Frederick, a Boy Scout leader, and his son Parker, a Boy Scout, cautiously inched closer to the downed bird, they noticed a small hole in its right wing.
"I thought of two things first: That this was a beautiful bird and the second thing was, why would someone ever shoot a bald eagle or injure it in any way?" Parker said.
They put a towel over the bird, but said it pulled it away with its claws as it lay there, injured and seemingly stunned.
The father and son said they were out in the swamp with the neighbor doing the best they could to care for the bald eagle until help arrived.
That help came from Bird Emergency and Kare Sanctuary.
"BEAKS came by. The gentleman was really really nice in leather gloves and picked the bird up and placed it in a box, and what was really simple to me was that he placed a red white and blue blanket over top of him," Frederick said.
As of Tuesday, BEAKS officials said the eagle is doing much better. It is standing and eating by itself, and eating well.
That's great news for this family who last saw the bird like in bad condition.
"Just to see one that was injured like that was truly heartbreaking," Frederick said. "I hope someone sees this and knows who did it and hopefully they get turned in.
Shooting a bald eagle is a federal offense. If found, the person convicted of shooting the bird, or any other bald eagle, could spend time in prison.
BEAKS is asking anyone with information to contact the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Comission at 1-888-404-3922.