A bald eagle found itself in a sticky situation this week. According to Hobbitstee Wildlife Refuge, bylaw officers in Brantford found the bird of prey in a garbage dump on Monday night. “The initial call was for an eagle with a broken wing, but luckily that is not the case,” they wrote in a social media post. The bird wasn’t injured, but it was coated in an unspecified substance. Rescuers took it to the Hobbitstee Wildlife Refuge, a volunteer-led rehabilitation centre west of Nanticoke for sick, injured or orphaned animals. “This poor eagle arrived absolutely covered in awful smelling goo down to her skin. Even all her down was sticking together,” their post said. “The poor girl is now drying up in an incubator. Hopefully she’ll feel better when she is dry.” The bird was given a bath and food, then workers checked to see if there were any other medical issues. Chantal Theijn, a wildlife custodian at Hobbitstee, said they aren’t sure what the substance is. They are confident, however, that it isn’t toxic. The eagle will stay at the refuge until she is ready to take flight. “She has had one wash, but she’ll need several more to become fully clean and functional,” Theijn said. It’s not just the mystery substance that they have to remove. “The soap which we use removes all the oil from the feathers, so it makes them useless,” she said. “It’s going to take a good couple of weeks for her to be a fully-flighted eagle again.”
