Ran into an interesting situation this past weekend. Driving over 97 just about into Pateros when my buddy and I spotted something in a tree down near the river. It looked at first like a black trash bag caught on a limb and blowing in the breeze. When we got closer it looked like maybe a bird. I stopped and we checked it out with binocs and sure enough, it was an eagle that seemed to be snagged on something that trapped it to a branch. Maybe picked up some fishing line, piece of string, wire or bungee, but it was clearly trapped and struggling to get free. We watched it for awhile and it was clear that whatever was holding it was not going to release and the bird could probably struggle until it died.
What to do? It was Saturday and I figured it would be hard to get any WDFW people to respond but I called the Ephrata office on the odd chance I might be able to leave a message. As expected, no one answered and I got a recording that advised me to wait until the end and leave a message. I waited through the whole recording and it just kept repeating, never allowing me to leave a message. Realistically, I don't know what could have been done since the bird was high in the tree and it would have been about impossible to approach to help it. I would have to believe that WDFW would have experience dealing with type of thing.
Has anyone else run across something like this? Did anyone else happen to see the eagle in the tree? Who do you call for injured wildlife that could possibly be rescued?
We checked out the tree on our way back home Sunday evening and saw no evidence of the bird in the tree. It either finally got free or someone took care of the problem.
