Juvenile eagle rescued in Haines, recovering in Sitka

Justin Letson, Baylee Pearson, Mark Fontenot and an unidentified person stop to pose for a photo after rescuing a stunned bald eagle later named Moose in late September near Haines. (Courtesy photo)

By Charlene Jones

For the Chilkat Valley News

A juvenile bald eagle rescued near the Haines airport is recovering in Sitka and is expected to make a full recovery, though it’s not clear exactly how it got injured.  

The eagle landed on everyone’s radars on Sunday, when Baylee Pearson arrived at her grandparent’s house at 2.5 Mile  Haines Highway to find that the power was out. She said people at the house were shouting that an eagle had hit the power lines. 

“[They said] it sounded like a shotgun went off. It was a huge blast and sparks were everywhere,” she said. 

The bird was seen wobbling and gliding down to the flats across the highway from the house immediately after the strike. Baylee Pearson and Mark Fontenot wasted no time. 

 “We booted up and grabbed a fleece camp blanket,” said Pearson.

Armed with the blanket, a pair of rubber gloves and the intent to rescue the eagle, they set off across the Haines Highway to the Chilkat River flats. 

Pearson said the waist-high horsetail and an unsettling bear story told by Fontenot did give her cause for concern. But they pressed on, scouring the brush for the injured bird.

Then, just as Fontenot had decided they weren’t going to find it, Pearson spotted the large bird sitting on a branch.

She described it as being in a defensive posture, hissing and sending all the signals (of distress?). 

“You don’t really think about it until you’re a foot away,” she said. “This guy will mess me up pretty bad if he wants to.”

The two hatched a plan to sneak up on the eagle. Fontenot stood in front of the bird and distracted it with his blue gloves as Pearson approached from behind. They each had a corner of the blanket and tossed it – on a count of three. 

“It was talons this way and beaks that way; talons were absolutely massive, but we got lucky with good blanket placement on the first try,” she said. “It was kind of perfect. The wings were by its sides and the blanket was right over the beak, offering a dark, secure environment.”

With the bird in hand, Fontenot phoned a friend, Gabe Hallmark, who works as the avian curator at the American Bald Eagle Foundation. 

Hallmark and Mallory Benda, museum curator, showed up with big gloves made for big birds with big talons and took the eagle to the eagle foundation. 

There, Hallmark examined the bird and decided it was likely a “she” and about a year old.

“Most likely this is a female. It is impossible to tell just by looking at them but because of her sheer size we are saying she is a she,” Hallmark said. 

He also figured she may have a head injury, as she was acting stunned. But, without any physical injuries to address, they tucked her into a kennel and waited for the next available flight to Sitka. 

Hallmark and Benda named the bird Moose, as this is moose season and her rescuers are moose hunters. 

Moose arrived at the Alaska Raptor Center in Sitka on Tuesday. There, the bird received an IV for fluids and a full physical exam. 

“Feeling for injuries, looking for bruising or restricted motion. She seemed stunned but displayed no physical injuries,” avian care specialist River Setzer said.

It still was not clear if she had a head injury or had been electrocuted. But, staff agreed that Moose is likely female. 

Females are notably larger than males with beak and feather coloring also helping determine the bird’s sex.

Since she has arrived in Sitka, Moose has been eating on her own and bathing quite a bit,  which is a good sign, according to Setzer.

She has been in outdoor quarantine and appears to have been enjoying the rain while she gets used to her new surroundings. Setzer said they expect her to make a full recovery and move into the raptor center’s flight-training center after finishing a 10-day quarantine. 

In March or April of 2026 the Raptor Center will be doing a release of all nine of its eagles, and Setzer said staff expect Moose to be among them. In the past, there have been releases of rehabilitated eagles during Haines’ bald eagle festival in November but staff at the Raptor Center and the American Bald Eagle Foundation say they have internal policies to release the rehabilitated birds during the spring when the food sources are most abundant. 

• This story originally appeared in the Chilkat Valley News.