LYNNWOOD, Wash. — After spending months in rehab at the PAWS Wildlife Center, a bald eagle that was found injured on the SR 520 Bridge was released into the wild.
Washington State Patrol Trooper Ivan Sergeev was the one that got the call -- an injured bald eagle was in the middle of the busy bridge. Sergeev arrived and found what PAWS later said was an immature male eagle.
“(He) didn’t have the look of a predator in his eyes, he had the look of despair,” Sergeev told PAWS.
The trooper gently wrapped the eagle in a blanket before belting it into the backseat of his patrol car. He then headed to the PAWS in Lynnwood.
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At the time the eagle was received by PAWS, its prognosis was guarded. The ailing bird had a fractured coracoid – a bone that attaches the sternum with the shoulder and is crucial to flight, according to PAWS.
But after cage rest and physical therapy sessions, the eagle is now ready to be released. A trooper took the eagle to Magnuson Park to let it go early Thursday afternoon.