SACRAMENTO REGION, CA (MPG) - The efforts of 30 people recently saved a single bird’s life. Early this summer, Fair Oaks-based animal rescue partners Ben Nuckolls and Laura Morin responded to reports of a grounded bald eagle at New Hogan Lake (Calaveras County). The pair searched the lake shore and at nightfall, found the small male. He was near death: scored all over with raptor-fight wounds and unable to fly.

His worst injury was a crater that extended almost the breadth of his skull. After days on the ground, the raptor was being eaten alive by maggots. He was also starving and dehydrated but according to Ben Nuckolls, our national bird still had fighting spirit left. “When I flung the net over him, he resisted,” explained Nuckolls. “Laura and I got him into a kennel and drove 45 miles to Acorn Hills Animal Center (Sutter Creek). The vet, Alison Pillsbury, came in after hours. We saw the fight still in him and that gave us hope.”

Sheer fight saw eagle “Calaveras” through four months of healing, courtesy of Tri County Wildlife Care in Jackson. The raptor’s head wound was so deep that a quarter-size chunk of skull was exposed. Though fish-skin graft was considered, the eagle was deemed too stressed for surgery. Tri County founder Susan Manning and fellow volunteers eventually healed the wound with Silver Sulfadiazine cream. As skin regenerated over exposed skull, Manning wondered if his beautiful white pompadour could return. “I feared he might always be a truly ‘bald’ eagle,” she considered. “But at last, tiny quills pimpled the new skin. White feathers began to fill in. They have such an amazing capacity to heal.”

Eagle Calaveras was soon winging powerfully around a 100-foot flight chamber loaned by bird rehabilitator Pat Benik. Angler Wally Gallagher caught fish and delivered them live to nourish the survivor. With returning health came feist; born free, the captive was going nuts in captivity. He crashed at chamber walls. He damaged wings and face in efforts to escape. “We didn’t want to release him while his head was still healing,” explained Manning. “But we feared he’d do terrible damage to himself. We had to let him go.” On a recent Saturday, Calaveras was driven back to his beloved home shores.

And not a moment too soon: parole glittered in the warrior’s yellow eyes. As Morin and Park Ranger Sam Schutz unclasped his cage, a powerful talon rammed the door wide open and out shot a bat from hell. Calaveras rocketed along a gully and clamped yellow feet on a high pine branch, 250 yards from his release site.

This photographer found him minutes into blessed freedom; poised with furrowed head down in hunting mode. As an Air Force poet once described, the warrior had “slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings.”

Who can project this eagle’s fate? Suffice to say the effort of 30 human angels had saved a noble icon from death. “His recovery was touch-and-go,” said rescuer Laura Morin.  “His big wound took ages to heal, and dozens of people worked hard to help him. Ben and I are involved in many animal rescues; we don’t always see happy endings.”

At the lakeside release site, Susan Manning regarded his transporter. “An empty cage is a good thing,” she considered.  “Without Ben and Laura, this guy would not have survived another day. He left us, flying free"'the majestic eagle he was meant to be.”

Non-profit Tri County Wildlife Care and self-funded rescuers Ben Nuckolls and Laura Morin save hundreds of injured wild animals every year. Supporters may assist the Tri County agency at pawspartners.org. Donate to help Ben Nuckolls' rescues via Wildlife Rescue by Ben Nuckolls at GO FUND ME.