A bald eagle is recovering and getting cleaned up after it was found covered in a sticky substance at the Brantford landfill on Monday.
A supervisor at the landfill initially noticed the bird and contacted city bylaw, Ian Harrower, supervisor of bylaw compliance, told CTV News on Tuesday.
“The location was deep within the landfill, was very muddy, you couldn’t really access it by any normal vehicle,” Harrower described.
Harrower said a group of bylaw officers went to check out the situation, using dirt bikes and a utility task vehicle to get to the area.
There they found the bird, who was unable to fly but still very active, running around.
Bylaw officers managed to corral it near a fence and wrap the bird in a jacket.
Concerned it had a broken wing, the bylaw team contacted Hobbitstee Wildlife Refuge in Nanticoke, Ont., and asked them to assess the bird.
“On exam, there was no broken wing,” said authorized wildlife custodian Chantal Theijn. “We did do x-rays just to make sure. But the eagle was covered in a mysterious substance.”
Theijn said the substance was sticky, like a ‘goo.’
“All the feathers were stuck together,” Theijn describes. “Down to the skin, all the feathers were sticky and covered in whatever the mysterious substance is.”
Given the rain that fell on Monday, Theijn suspects it could be a mixture of substances that would be in a landfill.
The eagle was given a bath and dried overnight in an incubator.
While precautions were taken during the initial wash, Theijn said whatever covered the bird did not appear to be toxic.
Theijn said it’s likely the bird will need a number of baths before it regains its ability to fly again, noting that not only was the bird covered in the goo, soap removes the oils from the feathers, rendering them, in Theijn’s words, “useless.”
“It’s going to take a good couple of weeks, if not longer, for her to be a fully flighted eagle again.”
Theijn said the eagle otherwise appears healthy and in reasonably good spirits.
The plan is to release the bird once it is clean and able to fly again.
While it is difficult to assess the eagle’s age due to the dirty plumage, Theijn said the bird is more than five years old and appears to be in the “prime of her life.”
Theijn said eagles can have a lifespan of as long as forty years.
“So, you know, she hopefully has a ways to go.”
As for those that helped rescue the eagle from the landfill, they’re happy to hear the bird is doing well.
“From the supervisor at the landfill site to my bylaw staff, everything worked out,” Harrower said.
“It was a good plan that got put in motion and everything worked out.”
