DOF (Dansk Ornitologisk Forening), the Danish Ornithological Society.

I last saw the juvenile White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) on the nest the 31st of July and it looked fit and ready to fly. A relief, because the expected moment for its departure was long overdue, why I, and others, have been wondering if it was sick or just had grown to become a lazy teenager reluctant to start a life on its own.

But my feeling of optimism only lasted a few days, until yesterday when I met Stefan Stürup, DOF-kbh, in the forest (Kongelunden), where he told me that, just five minutes earlier, the eagle had been caught to be transferred to a rehab-station in Jylland.

Apparently the bird had been found by visitors near the golf course the day before, sitting on the ground. And according to the rescuing-team the bird had difficulty flying, because it was missing all the remiges in one of the hands!

Stefan says, this is not unheard of among raptors. I haven't been able to find information that supports this, or for that matter, any that rejects it, but a completely asymmetrical damage, and apparently a clear-cut one, in my eyes, does smell more like a mechanical cause than an internal disorder.

I admit, it would suit my anti-banding agenda better, if I knew the bird had been injured when the DOF-people put on the gps-transmitter back in June. Because this in fact happened, just after I told them that there was a young eagle on its way in Kongelunden this year. But it would probably be to stretch my discontent too far, and even more so because the photos I have from June 19 show two complete and healthy-looking hands. And this was the day after I took another photo that seems to show something attached to the bird's back.

So what happened will be pure guessing, but one could speculate that perhaps an intruder, another eagle, had attacked the young on the nest while the parents were away.

One or the other, Stefan said the bird didn't look sick, and in fact, the only reason why the rescuers decided to bring it to the rehab-station was, that there was too much traffic in the forest; that it would disturb and stress the bird unnecessarily. Under normal conditions the parents would still attend the young, but perhaps not with all the dog-owners, horse-riders, mountain-bikers, joggers, police-dog-trainers, mushroom-collectors, berry-collectors, birders, photographers and other good or less so people flowing by continuously.

Their plan therefore was to keep the bird for 2-3 weeks, until the wing would be fully-grown again, and then release it again in the same place. I assume in the nest? The parents are supposed to accept the offspring even after some while away. Let's hope it goes this way.

This happened on August 4 why August 25 will be the day to look forward to with anticipation.

UPDATE (2021-09-24):
On Sep 4 Karsten Busk told me that the eagle had been released back to the area a week and a half ago, but with no further information. Two days ago Steffen Sunshine Nielsen could add to the story, that the bird had wisely been released on Aflandshage and not to the nest or elsewhere in the forest. But it did not respond successfully to its new status as a healthy free-flying young eagle. Something was obviously still wrong with it, because it was found walking around along Kalvebodvej, and had been seen falling into a water trough for horses. Apparently it still couldn't fly, and as a consequence it was captured again, and taken to a rehab-station. I guess both to nurse it and to find out what was wrong with it. Steffen didn't know what they found out, if anything, but he knew that it finally died in their custody!

UPDATE II (2021-10-30):
Met Thomas Hellesen today and he told me that, after corresponding with DOF about this very strange and unfortunate episode, they had finally admitted that the eagle had indeed been injured when they tried to band it! Somehow they had lost control when handling the bird, and it fell out of the nest and consequently broke all the long primaries in one of the hands. Of course it is most likely that the wing got damaged internally as well, otherwise it would have recovered perfectly (if its misfortune wasn't simply initiated by the psychological trauma it obviously must have experienced).

The order of facts remains a bit unclear to me unless the bird was handled twice. Thomas said it happened when they tried to band it, why I guess that was actually the case. First they went up in the nest to put on a gps-transmitter, and later to band it..?

Or perhaps what really happened was, that the transmitter fell off after the first attempt, which makes sense because I have photos of the bird, from 2021-06-18 with disorganized back feathers indicating that something unusual is causing this:


And the day after I took these photos which both show that the bird is looking fine and that it, apparently, doesn't have anything attached to the back anymore:




But after this date the bird was just sitting on the nest every time I visited. Some days it looked better than others but large loose feathers on the back on July 13 might indicate that it was not in such a good shape after all. I last saw it on the nest, July 31. All photos of the bird here.

If this is what happened I can only say that the responsible persons showed an incredible lack of professionalism, putting maximum stress on the bird. And the fact that the bird was of unknown exact age, but looking quite old and well-developed in the photos I had sent to DOF of course should have been enough for them to decide not to approach the bird; and let it grow, fly and live as a free spirit without being abused by stupid humans.

The only information to be found about the incident on the DOF website is a short and lame note informing that the bird has died, probably because of starvation...




UPDATE III (2021-12-18):
Decided to renounce my membership of DOF today(after 30 years or so). Don't want to support an organization that doesn't have a policy that prevents this type of questionable situations. Of course you could argue that in the larger picture DOF still does a good job in favor of the wild birds in our country, and that a single tragic mistake shouldn't have such a drastic consequence. But the fact that the organization hasn't announced the incident to the public on their own initiative, makes me realize that their moral standards are not to my likening. Perhaps they thought they could silence the episode to death. A foolish thought, though, knowing that many local birders knew about the bird and were looking forward to meet it in the field one day during the summer. People would ask questions with suspicious minds, as I have, and finally the truth would come out. I'm not saying I would forgive the excessive manipulation of wildlife, in the name of science, even if honesty and regret had been shown in time, but it certainly would have made it easier to accept the loss of this beautiful animal!

Why is it that people ever so often reach for silence and denial as their first choice when trying to damage control their way out of a critical situation? Why is it, they don't stand up as say it as it is? What are they afraid of? The embarrassment of having their incompetence flashed in the public, giving room for the imagination that most of their knowledge and expertise is inflated with hot air!? Rhetorical I am!

Today I tried to find the brief notice on the DOF website, that I found earlier, just to see if they had added new information about what really happened. But now I couldn't even find it! I also tried to find information about how to renounce a membership, but nothing is available. Contrary to a very easy access to information about memberships and donations!

Small signs here and there that in total give hint toward a general feeling of poor judgment and character in the organization, and this is now why I say: "Goodbye DOF. May you realize your shortcomings soon, and find your way back to higher moral standards where academic and financial pursuit is not your first motivation."



Enjoy life (after all)!