Maine Outdoor Journal

enlarge

Elsie, the golden eagle at the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray, sits on her perch and keeps a wary eye on a visitor near her nest. Elsie was rescued in California after suffering substantial trauma to her right wing in what is thought to have been a collision with a wind turbine.

Travis Barrett/Staff Photo

enlarge

Elsie occupies half of the structure reserved for eagles at Maine Wildlife Park. It is believed there are no remaining nesting pairs of golden eagles in Maine.

Travis Barrett/Staff Photo

TO VIEW ELSIE

WHAT: The golden eagle arrived at the Maine Wildlife Park in April, but Elsie's official "unveiling" will take place this weekend at the fifth annual Native American Pow-Wow.

WHEN: Aug. 8-9

WHERE: Maine Wildlife Park, 56 Game Farm Road, Gray

WHAT ELSE: Representatives of several tribes will be at the park for two full days of wildlife celebration, dancing, drumming, singing and arts and crafts. Special events will be presented throughout each day.

TO LEARN MORE: For more information, visit www.mainewildlifepark.com or call 657-4977.

MAINE WILDLIFE PARK

HOURS: 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily

ADMISSION: $7 for adults and $5 for children; children ages 3 and under are admitted free.

GRAY — Elsie's cold stare stops you in your tracks.

In flight, the eagle seems to gently soar overhead with arms lazily outstretched. It creates an almost peaceful aura, dropping jaws and lighting smiles across faces.

Here, though, just 10 feet from the eagle's perch, my feet are frozen in fear.

Mark Jordan just laughs. The gamekeeper at the Maine Wildlife Park has seen this reaction before.

"They're almost intimidating when you look at them. They're just so big," Jordan says. "I've seen people look at them, and their first impression is always, 'Do they attack you?' "

But Jordan also says that maybe a human's first instinct upon such a close encounter with an eagle isn't an unwise one.

"If they had that mindset, sure, they could do a lot of damage to a human," he says. "So I guess people do have a right mind to at least wonder."

Elsie, though, is by and large a docile bird.

The golden eagle came to the wildlife park in April after losing part of her right wing in an accident. She's become one of the park's stars.

The California native is believed to be just a few years old, a sub-adult that represents a part of Maine's natural history that has all but disappeared.

SUBTLE DIFFERENCES

Over the last 300 years, there have been but 20 records of nesting golden eagle pairs in Maine, said Charlie Todd, a biologist with the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Todd, who was recently honored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for his work in restoring the bald eagle population in Maine, noted that the habitat offered here isn't ideal for the golden eagle.

While bald eagles relish forests, mountains and, above all else, plenty of water sources for hunting, golden eagles prefer wide-open spaces.

"They are very common in the western U.S.," Todd said. "The golden eagle is absolutely the most successful eagle species in the world, but they don't forage in woodlands. They need open country. Their real preference is open land, which we don't particularly have here in Maine."

With their dark-brown bodies and feathers, golden eagles closely resemble immature bald eagles, leading to misidentification relatively frequently. But goldens do not have the mottling of white feathers the way young balds do, and their heads are smaller, with a beak that takes on less of a "lobster-claw" look.

One of the biggest differences in the two species occurs around the legs. Bald eagles have bare, yellow legs; golden eagles have legs covered with brown feathers right down to their ankles.

"They are all subtle things," Todd said. "The adult (golden) has amber highlights or rusty tones around its head too, and 'golden' comes from that."

Although the golden eagle, which is on Maine's endangered species list, is rare, it can still be seen in the state. During the fall migration, the birds routinely fly over Maine in making the trip south from eastern Canada, where a small population exists.

Golden eagles take part in a more active migration than bald eagles.

"Out of the north country, it's probably typical of eagles to be fairly migratory," Todd said. "Bald eagles tend to only go as far as they need to find food."

BEST FOR THE BIRD

Elsie could no longer fly on her own, but she did have one long flight still ahead of her.

Ironically, a lack of open space is what led to Elsie making her permanent home in Maine.

She was believed to have collided with a giant wind turbine, like the ones now becoming so popular here, near the Buena Vista Wind Farm in Livermore, Calif. She was spotted making short, awkward flights, and was later rescued by biologists in California.

It was discovered that Elsie had significant damage to her right wing, where a turbine had cut into what would be her hand and finger bones. Examined extensively by veterinarians, it was determined that she could not be rehabilitated and released back into the wild on her own.

That's where Jordan stepped in.

"We'd been looking for a golden eagle for our eagle exhibit," he said. "The building was built with the idea of having both bald eagles and golden eagles for the sake of showing people the differences."

The process was a painstaking one, a very detail-oriented procedure that laid out everything from how to care for the eagle to how she should be packed for shipping.

"We wanted to make sure we were doing the best thing for the bird," said Jordan, who worked at the Avian Haven rescue center in Freedom before becoming game keeper at the wildlife park. "You have to make sure she's a non-releaseable candidate, because if there's a possibility (of rehabilitation), they're going to try.

"The flight was set up through Delta, and into Portland she came. She could fly, I guess, just not on her own accord."

Elsie is now healthy. Emaciated when first rescued, she is eating regularly and growing quickly.

"The thing I notice the most is how stoic they are," Jordan. "The bald eagles here, they seem to be kind of short-tempered sometimes, it seems. As long as you keep a distance, (Elsie) is very laid back. Very statuesque.

"I'm not sure if that's a going trend or a common behavior pattern, but that's the way she is."

And being herself is the most important benefit to the Maine Wildlife Park.

"Here, she can be an ambassador for her species," Jordan said. "She likes to have her rabbit, but she likes her mice a lot more.

"The birders that come here (to the park) absolutely love her, and I think she represents a lot of important things in this state, from the lack of goldens to the wind turbines and all."

Golden eagles won't soon reappear in Maine, although Todd said eternal optimists have seen signs that golden eagles can prosper on the East Coast.

"Probably the most intriguing point for being an optimist for any possible return of golden eagles to Maine is what's happening at very famous hawk-watch places along the Appalachian corridor," Todd said. "Most of them are showing steady growth in migratory golden eagles."

For now, though, Maine will have to watch golden eagles from afar.

That is, if they're not watching you with that icy glare.

Staff Writer Travis Barrett can be contacted at 621-5648 or at:

tbarrett@centralmaine.com