SEQUIM, Wash. — A couple of eaglets that have fallen from their nest are under the careful watch of a neighborhood in Washington State.
The fall easily could have killed the young birds, but the pair were fortunate enough to have been saved by an unlikely hero — a Shih Tzu named Sebastian.
Kathy Pitts was out walking with Sebastian last week when something out of the ordinary caught her attention.
“All of a sudden he stopped would not move,” Pitts explained. “I looked over and saw one of the babies.”
Sebastian had spotted the two young eagles along the side of the road.
The two seem to have somehow fallen from their nest and ended up nearly 50 feet away. They had left the relative safety of their home in the sky for a dangerous spot alongside a busy road.
“It seems like mission impossible for them,” Pitts said.
That’s quite the understatement. These two birds are so young that they can’t even walk. Flying is absolutely out of the question.
Regardless of how they arrived at the road’s edge, Moore can’t stop thinking about how to return the eaglets to their nest.
“This was a unique situation,” she said.
Moore thought to call Casey Balch with Pacific Northwest Tree Service to see if they could help the stranded animals. She managed to get them into a duffle bag and Balch was able to use his equipment to return the birds to their nest.
It was no small task, especially when the parents of these young eagles were noticeably frightened by their young’s closeness to people.
“Mom and dad were circling around,” said Balch. “At one point I saw mom sitting in one of the fir trees directly behind us, just keeping an eye on everything.”
Photographer Keith Ross captured the heralding rescue on camera.
Shortly thereafter, their mother was seen feeding the babies while dad kept a close eye.
Now the residents of the neighborhood are keeping a close eye on the nest, staying on the lookout for any members of the feathery family that may have strayed a little too far from home.
“All these people out here are watching daily and reporting to us daily,” Moore said. “They tell us the chicks are still in the nest. They’re having crab, today, or salmon. They keep watch and let us know our efforts paid off.”
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