Deceased eagles examined at national lab

The pair of male bald eagles found by the North Coast News on Jan. 25 at the Pacific Boulevard beach approach were not shot, the carcasses were “in excellent shape,” and the eyes of the birds did not appear to be glazed over.

Also, they do not have symptoms of avian flu, which recently was found in a deceased peregrine falcon.

Those are the initial results of tests on the eagles after they were found deceased that Sunday in Ocean Shores, and then transferred to the National Wildlife Center in Madison, Wis. by Dan Varland of Coastal Raptors.

Varland was called by the Ocean Shores Police Department after the North Coast News reported the finding of the eagles to Grays Harbor County Dispatch.

“Both birds were found dead that morning at the high tide line. One was located on the approach and the other was 150 feet south,” Varland said in a report after he was called to the scene to take control of the eagles.

The National Wildlife Health Center then performed a necropsy.

“The report does indicate that the birds, both males, had some injuries. After reading the report, I spoke with Susan Knowles, the staff pathologist in charge of this case and the one who did the necropsies. At this point at least, the findings indicate to Susan that the birds fought over food or possibly something else. Susan believes they injured each other, then wound up in the water where they drown,” Varland wrote in an update.

Both birds were further tested for avian influenza, West Nile Virus and lead poisoning (liver). “The final test results showed neither bird had avian influenza, which is good,” Varland said. Varland’s non-profit Coastal Raptors monitors and studies coastal populations of eagles, falcons, ravens and turkey vultures, and he was concerned there might be a spread of avian influenza with the finding of the pair of eagles.

“When you see two birds like that only 150 feet apart it does give you pause,” he said.

Recently, a banded peregrine falcon was found dead at the Ocean Shores wastewater treatment plant. It was sent to the same Wisconsin lab and results showed it did have avian influenza, Varland noted. Further tissue samples were sent to another lab and Varland is awaiting final word.

For the eagles, Varland said there appeared to be bodily injuries to wings on both birds, which were not banded. While the tide might have deposited the birds at their final resting place off the Pacific beach access road, they probably were not in the water long since Varland reported their eyes were not even glazed over when he came to pick them up early that Sunday afternoon.

“They likely died fighting,” he said. “I’ll bet they died that morning.”

“I really didn’t examine them much myself because I didn’t want to damage any evidence that might be there,” he added. “It was interesting — one wing was damaged on one side, and the opposite wing on the other bird had the same kind of damage.”

For more information about Coastal Raptors, visit coastalraptors.org. Report dead waterfowl and raptors to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife at 1-800-606-8768.