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An adult Bald Eagle named Tiny recovers in a small room at the Clinch River Raptor Center in Clinton Wednesday, Nov 18, 2009 on Nov. 17, 2009.
CLINTON – When he received a phone call in September about a badly injured Bald Eagle, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Officer Vince Pontello said he didn’t believe it.
“But sure enough, there it was,” Pontello said of the full-grown raptor, found huddled in thick bushes off Lawnville Road in Roane County.
Pontello presumes the eagle was hit by a vehicle or a boat near its waterfront nest and flew until “pain overwhelmed it.”
He said he wrapped the bird – its left leg shattered in six places – in a tarp and cradled it on his lap while another TWRA officer drove them to Clinch River Raptor Center.
Thus began an intensive effort involving many volunteers to return the bird first to full health and then to the wild. The effort continues today.
“If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes half of East Tennessee to keep an eagle fed and cared for,” according to the nonprofit center’s latest newsletter.
Dr. Rick Hinson, a veterinarian at Oak Ridge Veterinarian Hospital, donated his expertise, performing delicate surgery and inserting a stainless steel pin into the eagle’s hollow femur so it could mend.
It took more than a week before the eagle, christened ‘Tiny’ by student helpers, was coaxed into eating on its own, said Katie Cottrell, the center’s co-director.
Now, Tiny has a ravenous appetite, devouring a pound of fish a day, all contributed by local anglers and nearby Eagle Bend Fish Hatchery.
Hunters are also providing deer hearts and livers to supplement the eagle’s diet, Cottrell said.
With the steel pin removed and a regimen of antibiotics completed, Tiny continues to recuperate inside a small room in the center, a cinder block building in the courtyard at Clinton Middle School.
The bird dislikes visitors, Cottrell said.
“If you go in with your back to it, it doesn’t get so upset,” she said.
Soon, the 10-pound male eagle will be transferred to a large cage at the American Eagle Foundation in Pigeon Forge, where it can take wing and regain its strength.
Cottrell said plans are for Tiny to then be taken back to Roane County and released into the wild. Bald Eagles are making a comeback in Tennessee, Pontello said.
There was only one recorded eagle nest site in Tennessee in 1983, he said. In 2006, there were 102 nests statewide, and there are three active nests in Roane County this year, Pontello said.
An adult Bald Eagle named Tiny recovers in a small room at the Clinch River Raptor Center in Clinton Wednesday, Nov 18, 2009 on Nov. 17, 2009.
All Photos by Saul Young
© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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