what do a peregrine falcon with a broken wingand a red-tailed hawk with only one functional eye have in common? both are birds of preyand they're receiving much needed medical attention at saving our avian resources, orsoar. this tail is a journey of rehabilitation and reconnection with nature for both birdsand humans alike. (music) according to some experts, an eagle has arounda 50/50 chance of surviving its first year of life in the wild. in the spring of 2013,it looked as if a pair of eaglets in central iowa would be on the wrong side of that statistic.the nest they called home had been built in a dead tree in the shallows of a small lake.it is believed that high winds caused the
tree to topple, putting both young birds inthe water. only one of the two eaglets survived the disaster, but was still in peril. it isdifficult to see any animal in distress but because an injured wild animal can still bedangerous, rescue should only be attempted by persons with training. as a retired conservationofficer, john mertz had been involved in many such situations. john mertz: so i kind of got to an up windside, there was a little bit of a breeze, and just drifted towards the log where theeagle was without trying to use my paddle or anything. i tried to use a carhartt toget on top of the bird and he escaped, did a little breast stroke to another log andgo up on it. so i backed out of there, came
into him again and just went ahead and grabbedhim with my hands. it's preferable to leave a young animal inits home with its parents. but when the home has been destroyed the question is, will theadult still be able to care for their babies? even though the parents were still providingsome food to the surviving eaglet, it was determined that the young raptor would perishif action wasn't taken. marla mertz: it's really hard to tell butit looks like we've got a small wing issue on the right wing. it's still a little bithungry. there's just an issue there with trauma and it will have a better chance going withus today than it does staying here. from its destroyed nest at rock creek statepark, the eaglet was transported 120 miles
to what everyone hoped would only be a temporaryhome. diversity farms, which is south of carroll, is the headquarters for soar, an acronym forsaving our avian resources. kay neumann: we're really not circumventingmother nature by trying to fix these guys. usually what we see, the injuries are somehowhuman related. they're hit by a car, they run into a window, they get tangled up ina barbed wire fence. and so 95% of the things that come in are related to some sort of humaninteraction. while it's always the goal to return an animalto the wild, some injuries are so severe that a bird's only hope is to live the rest ofits life in captivity. there are around 12 birds that have become permanent residentsat soar. there's the snowy owl with a wing
that didn't mend, the kestrel with a lackof fear after imprinting on humans, and an eagle blinded from lead poisoning. neumann: last year, 2012, we took in 49 baldeagles. if we were seeing 49 bald eagles and they all had a random assortment of problems,broken leg, a poke in the eye, broken wing, you know, just a hodgepodge of things, i wouldn'tbe worried. but when 32 of those came to us because of ingested lead then that's a problem. only 200 milligrams of lead, or a piece aboutthe size of a grain of rice, can kill an eagle. lead ulcerates the stomach, damages the kidneyand liver and will cause the brain to swell. in thora's case, the swelling caused damageto the optic nerve, which has impaired her
vision. neumann: poisoning is completely preventable.this is an easily prevented sort of thing that is happening. all we need to do is havehunters switch from lead ammunition to non-lead ammunition. they make non-toxic shot, copperbullets, copper slugs. right now we have over 260 eagles in our database. over 60% of thoseare there because of lead poisoning. the facilities at soar include an intensivecare area, where birds are treated for their life threatening injuries. the building isalso divided into 17 flight pens where a bird can recover from its injuries and exerciseits wings. for a young bird, it also provides an opportunity to learn social skills fromolder birds. jasper, the young eaglet rescued
from the lake when his nest was destroyed,suffered a deep muscle bruise. the 100 foot long flight barn at soar was invaluable inhelping the young eagle learn to fly as it recovered from its injuries. four months maybe, three months old. it took three months of rehabilitation beforejasper was ready for freedom. at a special event, he and four other birds from soar werereleased. the honor of returning jasper to the wild went to john mertz, the person whohad rescued him. neumann: the fun part of doing rehabilitationis to be able to give these guys a second chance at being wild. and it's fun to involvepeople. it's very exciting to be able to hold
one and when you're holding them you can justkind of feel that it's like, i really want to go, i want to fly and so for you to beable to let them go it's just fun to be able to give them what they want and fly free.
