JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A local tree service company was called to rescue two young bald eagles Tuesday morning after they had fallen out of their nest and into a fishing line in a massive pine tree in the Fort Caroline area.
According to Odom’s Beaches Tree Service, one of the eaglets was already dead at the time of the rescue, and the other eaglet was transported to a rehabilitation facility but had to be euthanized on Wednesday.
Odom’s Beaches Tree Service received a call from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Tuesday morning regarding two eaglets that were dangling from a fishing line. The tree company said the eaglets had fallen out of their nest about 90 feet up in a massive pine tree.
At the time, Boyd Deley, the owner of the tree service company, said he didn’t know the extent of the eaglets’ injuries. He used a crane to help get the birds down.
Deley was able to climb up the tree and pull the eaglets down using a net. With the help of Kay from the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey, they were able to cut the eagles free from braided fishing line and old fish carcasses.
“It was pretty apparent at first that the male had passed away from injuries from the fishing line already, which was very sad. I was able to take a net and net both of them take a pocketknife, and actually had to cut the fishing line out away from the one that was still alive and get them to both fall down into the net,” Deley said. “We were really hoping for the best. At the end of the day, we got the phone call the next day that the female ended up passing away.”
The tree service company stated that what happened serves as a reminder of the importance of properly disposing of fishing lines to prevent incidents like this from happening.
Autobahn Eagle Rescue and the FWC said this incident could have been avoided.
“There is a lot of trash that is just disregarded right there in front of everybody all the time, and it affects the manatees, the other wildlife... the sea turtles are a big one that end up getting messed up from it. So at the end of the day, we really just need to step it up on taking care of our wildlife,” Deley said.
