It was just like former Attorney General John Ashcroft sang it: “Let the eagle soar, like she’s never soared before.”
A rehabilitated bald eagle was set loose at Mason Neck State Park on Wednesday afternoon, a month after it was found sick and unable to fly in Fairfax County.
“The bird took off like she was shot out of a rocket; it was beautiful,” said Ed Clark, president of the Wildlife Center of Virginia, which treated the eagle.
The bird was taken to the center in late September after a citizen found it near the 6500 block of Parish Glebe Lane in Kingstowne. Animal hospital staff found she was suffering from a fungal respiratory infection that caused fluid to build up around her heart, Clark said. After thousands of dollars worth of treatment, the eagle recovered.
Unlike the ill-fated Martha, the injured bald eagle that was euthanized in Delaware earlier this month after a midair scrap with another eagle, the bird released Wednesday was not given a name, only a number: 2,111. It was the 2,111th patient at the center this year when it arrived.
