Hidden Talent:
Animal Rescues
Candy and Steve Ridlbauer, Northern Illinois Raptor Rehab and
Education Center, attempt to net and cage a rescued bald eagle to
transport it to the Willowbrook Wildlife Center for medical attention.
10 | September/October 2014
Eagle Rescue All in a Day's Work
Rescuing an endearing symbol of American
freedom isn't your typical Davey job, but that's
exactly what Davey Utility Foresters Joe Riddle
and Paul Boyd did when they helped save an
injured bald eagle in the Illinois wild.
Riddle and Boyd were conducting their
annual power line inspection for ComEd near
Rockford, Illinois, in March when Boyd saw
a massive bird clad all in brown feathers and
hobbling about on the ground.
"What really caught me off guard was I've
never seen a raptor of this size on the ground,"
Boyd says. "You never see that."
Boyd grew closer as he measured trees near
the lines. Scared, the bird reacted by scampering
away and into a nearby creek."It was real hard
to watch because I thought the thing was going
to (drown)," he says. "So I got into the creek
and chased it up onto dry land."
He asked for his colleague's opinion of its
state. Using his smartphone, Riddle searched
images of raptors and learned the nearly all
brown bird was in fact a juvenile eagle.
Determined to save the injured bird, Riddle
and Boyd relied on instruction they'd received
in January from ComEd, which conducted
training—complete with a live bald eagle—for
employees on how to address finding a large
raptor. Boyd and Riddle called the Northern
Illinois Raptor Rehab and Education Center.
Despite the bitter March cold, and the fact
it was well past quitting time, Boyd and Riddle
took turns with one man watching the bird and
the other warming up in the truck waiting for
Candy and Steve Ridlbauer, who run the
NIRREC, to arrive.
Boyd says he and Riddle joined the Ridlbauers,
circled the bird and slowly moved in on it.
After some frantic hobbling, the bird tired
out enough so that the husband-and-wife pair
could net the eagle and cage it.
"It had a collar bone fracture, very slight,"
Candy says. "If it wasn't rescued, there would
have been a problem with this bird being eaten
by coyotes."
The eagle was released back into the wild
on June 21.
Both Riddle and Boyd say the rescue felt
incredibly gratifying. "I just went with my
gut reaction," Boyd says. "I felt like I did the
right thing."
