- April 22, 2024
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The crows by the side of the road were haranguing a bald eagle, and Palm Coast resident Jimmy Day knew here must be something wrong with that bird. A healthy eagle would never sit for such abuse from crows.
“They were looking menacing. They knew something was up with it,” Day said. “I went out and looked at him, and he just didn’t look like a happy bird.”
It was about 4 p.m. Thursday and Day, 50, was on his way home from the liquor distillery on Hargrove Grade where he creates Flagler Spirits moonshine. He’d seen the eagle sitting in the tall grass at the intersection of Hargrove Grade and Hargrove Lane on his way to work in the morning, and was surprised to see it still there on his way back.
When he walked toward the bird, it tried to take off and crashed. Its right wing looked mangled. Day brought his son James, 12, out to see the eagle, and called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
An officer arrived within minutes of Day’s call, scooping up the struggling bird with gloves and a towel. He told Day the eagle will be sent to a raptor rehabilitation center in St. Augustine.
Even wounded, Day said, it was an impressive bird, maybe 17 inches tall and with a wingspan as wide as a man’s height. And it had the tools to defend itself, too.
“When the guy picked him up, the talons were as big as my hands,” Day said.
Day has helped a lot of critters in his time outside, untangling birds caught in fishing line, helping turtles across busy roadways, and shooing snakes out of his neighbors’ homes and yards.
Once, as a college student living on a 36-foot motor boat in Miami, he found himself caring for three injured birds at once: an egret, a pelican and a great blue heron.
On a fishing trip with friends about a mile off shore, he found a sea turtle wound tight in industrial net. They untangled it and watched the great turtle swim away.
Day said he sees wildlife so often in the rural area near his distillery that he has the phone number for Fish and Wildlife programmed into his phone. “You see stuff out here: alligators, otters, bobcats, the occasional panther, and it’s not unusual to see a bald eagle soaring around,” he said. “If I see an injured otter or bobcat or something like that, I’ll bug them to come and get it.”
Day feels obliged to lend a hand to critters that need one, especially when they’ve been hurt by people.
“If you see a pelican caught in fishing line,” he said, “to me, the common courtesy thing is to help it out.”
HOW TO HELP:
If you see a sick or injured animal and would like to help, call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 352-732-1225 during normal business hours or 888-404-3922 at night or on the weekends.
