Bald eagle release offers diversion day after election

If you were predisposed to cast a vote for the bullying bigot whose name appeared on the U.S. presidential ballot, the one whose calling card is linked to misogyny, childish name-calling and mean-spirited attacks on Latino and Muslim cultures, hey, congratulations, you got your guy.

Meantime, those of us who preferred the other candidate, whose legacy regrettably got bogged down in petty email issues that just wouldn’t go away — leaving in the dust her inspired effort as a lifelong advocate for children’s health, as U.S. senator and secretary of state — we ought to come to terms creatively with the new negative national reality.

If we’re smart, we’ll launch into appropriate diversions and distractions, light-years removed from the carnage of this dull-witted national election.

Personally, my diversion involves constructive endeavors that are essential to our wildlife neighbors. But before I present my own day-after departure from this electoral madness, indulge me as I relate a bit of scary foreshadowing I encountered on Election Day morning, Nov. 8.

I walk around the stunningly scenic Fiscalini Ranch Preserve five or six days a week; I walk briskly for a sustained 35 or 40 minutes. On that fateful Tuesday, a chilly billowy fog bank pushed onshore. I was finishing my walk on the south end of the gravel trail (that links to Marlborough Lane) when I stopped briefly to chat with a woman I often see walking her dog.

On this day, her dog, a medium-sized mutt, was not leashed. Dogs don’t have to be leashed if they are trained to obey commands on the gravel trail. This dog came close to me and growled. I wasn’t totally surprised; but suddenly it flashed its teeth and came at me. I jumped back and it attacked me, ripping a small hole in my jeans.

I tried to stand my ground. No use: By now it was raging, attacking. The dog owner was standing nearby helplessly calling this dog.

“I forgot the command,” she said.

Without asking, I hurriedly ripped the leash out of her hand and attacked the dog, hitting it hard on the butt with the metal end of the leash. I wasn’t going to be bitten without a fight.

On the offensive now, adrenalin pumping powerfully through my veins, I pursued the dog and swung the leash at it several times. It finally went behind the owner, and I said, “Get control of that dog’s collar and I’ll give you back the leash.”

She finally had hold of the collar; I gave her the leash.

I recall thinking, jeez, what else can happen today? As it turns out, the voters in America handed the presidency to a person who apparently believed it was his daily duty to unleash a tsunami of vitriol and hatefulness.

Day-after diversion

For the past eight years I have been a volunteer transporter for Pacific Wildlife Care (PWC) in Morro Bay, driving injured pelicans and other critters from Cambria and San Simeon down to PWC. I also make an automatic monthly contribution to this wonderful organization. So I was thrilled to be invited to attend the release of an American bald eagle at Fort Hunter Liggett on Nov. 9, the day after the election.

The large bird, tagged years ago as A23, was hatched from an egg retrieved from Santa Cruz Island in 2004, as part of the San Francisco Zoo’s captive breeding program. The overuse of DDT had resulted in eggshells too thin and fragile to allow healthy chicks to be hatched. The near demise of the brown pelican is linked to DDT as well.

The eagle had been found struggling for survival on the military base earlier this year, on March 21. She was severely dehydrated and emaciated, and both her feet were injured. But after seven months of rehabilitation at PWC — and in the 75-foot flight cage of rehabber Kelly Vandenheuvel in Cayucos — A23 was healthy and ready to fly free again.

On the hour-and-a-half trip up to Fort Hunter Liggett in my friend Chris Payne’s Audi, we couldn’t avoid the topic of the dreary election, and the future of America.

But closer to the fort, the conversation turned to our troubled natural world, wildlife, and how cool it will be to watch this bird — which has produced two chicks annually on the fort since 2009 — spread wings and soar once more.

Accompanied by about 20 invited onlookers, we positioned ourselves strategically to get quality video and still images of A23 when Vandenheuvel opened the big carrier’s door.

“Ready?” she called out.

We were ready.

The eagle popped out of the carrier and walked cautiously on her mended talons. She stopped, looked right and left; then, in a burst of energy, A23 took off toward a line of tall oak trees.

She landed in an ancient oak and roosted there for maybe 15 minutes. By that time, most of the participants had left, but we stayed and watched the eagle lift off again. She made a big circle and landed on the top of a snag 100 yards away.

The compelling irony was not lost on us as we made the trek back to Cambria: We were celebrating the release of the iconic symbol of America, the bald eagle, on the day after an American election that lifted a perceptibly unworthy person into the presidency.

On the local NBC affiliate, KSBY-TV, a reporter used my video from the eagle release on the 5 o’clock news that day. I didn’t mind that she failed to credit me with the video. But when she clumsily explained that the bald eagle had originally been found “emancipated,” rather than “emaciated,” I couldn’t hold back a chuckle.

Speaking of emancipated, we could use some wisdom from Abe Lincoln about now. “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves,” Lincoln asserted those many years ago.

This story was originally published November 22, 2016 at 8:19 AM with the headline "Bald eagle release offers diversion day after election."