Sudbury OPP constable rescues baby bald eagle

A baby bald eagle named Wick is now being treated at a wildlife refuge centre in Sudbury, Ont., thanks to the help of an OPP constable.

Constable Carmel McDonald recently got a call from her boyfriend, who lives east of Sudbury in Verner. He had been doing work on his property when he found a baby bald eagle.

The couple knew there was an eagle nest on the property.

"A couple days prior … there was a severe thunderstorm in the area," McDonald explained.

"It must have fallen out of the nest during that storm."

Unsure what to do, she says they made calls to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and the Wild at Heart Refuge Centre for advice. They both told her to leave the baby eagle, as its mother would likely return to care for it.

"After a couple of days, we didn't see the mother," she said.

"It wasn't very fearful. It was not that afraid."

They started to get concerned, as the bird was covered in deer flies and looked like it had a wing injury. McDonald phoned the wildlife centre back and was told to bring the eagle in.

The next challenge? How to get Wick, who was named for its large waxy like beak and feet, to the refuge centre.

McDonald says she and her boyfriend decided to put on gloves and cover Wick's head for the journey. Wick was carefully placed in the back of her police cruiser.

"I think it was just thankful somebody was attending to it," she said.

"It didn't move in the police cruiser. It stayed in the exact same spot for the entire drive."

Now, Wick is being cared for and will eventually be taken to a facility where it will learn to fly.

"Once it can fly — and we're so pleased by this — they will return the bald eagle to its original location," McDonald said.

"There was at least one other baby in the nest we could see. So that's great news that it's going to be returned to its family."