Eaglet falls out of nest, doesn’t survive

“It is nature,” a Berry professor says.

Rome’s — really the nation’s — eagle watching community was saddened Friday morning to learn that one of the 10-day-old eaglets at Berry College had toppled out of the nest Thursday night and was not able to survive the fall.

Renee Carleton, associate professor of biology at Berry, said the fall happened just after 8:30 p.m. and she was able to retrieve the carcass from the base of the tree around 11 p.m. Thursday.

“We’re darned lucky that nothing has happened before now.” Carleton said. “It was just a matter of time because it is nature.”

The carcass is being sent to the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study at the University of Georgia to determine if there was any neurological abnormality with the eaglet.

Less than a week ago, the male adult eagle unwound the intestines of a squirrel that had somehow wrapped around the neck of one of the eaglets, however at this point there is no way of knowing if it was the same bird since they hatched less than 24 hours apart and were essentially the same size.

Carleton said an analysis of the video from the approach camera indicates the eaglet may have gotten hung up on the side of the nest for a few minutes before it fell all the way to the ground.

“There were some scrapes on the body,” Carleton said.

Carlton said she was surprised at how mobile the eaglet was, given that it was less than two weeks old. “At roughly ten days old they’re not that mobile,” Carleton said. She said there was no movement on the part of the adult that was in the nest at the time to try to stop the eagle from wobbling around so close to the edge of the nest.

The adult eagles are constantly building up the nest, bringing sticks that are referred to as crib rails to try to keep the young inside the nest.

The professor said that Berry has started the paperwork process to be permitted to bring the remains back to campus for mounting a the bird as part of an exhibit that would go on display in a museum at the science building. “I don’t know if we’ll get approved for that or not,” said Carleton, who has a salvage permit and also has a number of hawks and owls that could be a part of the exhibit.

Berry eaglecam The lone eaglet remains in the shadow of an adult at the Berry College nest Friday after its sibling suffered a fatal fall.

Doug Walker / RN-T A stuffed critter honors the eaglet that fell out of the nest Thursday night and was not able to survive the fall. The nest is visible in the background, to the upper left of the stuffed critter.

Doug Walker / RN-T Shirley duPont (from left), Maure Meye, Cindy Echols and Frances Douglas are among a group from Gadsden who came to admire the nest. They got to see one of the adults fly in.