This was a serious story that ended well.

Shortly in the hard, cold winter after the warm water discharge at the Dunkirk Power Plant shut down, I received a desperate phone call from a lady who was serving as the coordinator for Messenger Woods. This group is a large volunteer Western New York Conservation Organization that has tasked itself with helping nurse injured outdoor critters back to health at their Holland facility and at numerous home-care satellite locations in the Western New York area. She was on a three-way call with a longtime NYSDEC biologist who was asking if my outdoor fishing friends and I might know of a way to find some minnows for feeding the half-starved Merganser ducks dying in Dunkirk Harbor. The harbor had frozen over, and the birds could not feed on their usual minnow diet, which had been found there for decades annually.

“The other concerning issue,” the biologist expressed, “Is that some of the members at the Northern Chautauqua Conservation Club in Dunkirk had counted 27 bald eagles sitting around the harbor and decimating the dying duck population.”

It was not pretty, but nature does as nature does. Of course, this occurred at a time when no one was allowed to net minnows because of Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia. However, the birds could eat them and survive with no problem. Tough birds. So, the conservation management groups did not want the disease to spread, so the curfew was on. Perch fishermen had to use certified minnows from a tested source, you may remember.

A bald eagle is pictured on the Cumberland Island National Seashore in Georgia, that had been banded and rehabilitated with help from Messenger Woods, Cornell University and the NYSDEC. Photo courtesy of Sarah Manning | Birds Georgia

On this day, we received official permission to catch minnows in any manner for the sole purpose of helping these starving waterfowl survive. It was a race against time. We used chainsaws to cut large holes in the ice, then used a large circular minnow net to bring the minnies up. With pounds of minnows and multiple 5-gallon buckets, we helped save many birds. We did this for a few weeks. Geez, they each can eat so many minnows in a day. I never knew. The real question I had for the DEC was simple. What about the eagles? Will they be OK without this unexpected new food source of helpless ducks? Here is one story to confirm the eagles did OK, too.

In February 2025, DEC wildlife staff received a report of a bald eagle banded in New York photographed alive and well in Georgia. This bird was rescued as a hatch-year male from the nearshore waters of Lake Erie in Chautauqua County in May of 2021, likely having fledged from a nearby cliff-top nest. The bird underwent surgery for a fractured humerus at Cornell University’s Janet L. Swanson Wildlife Hospital before being transferred to Messinger Woods Wildlife Care and Education in Holland for rehabilitation, where it fully recovered. On Aug. 18, 2021, DEC wildlife staff banded the eagle, and on Sept. 19, 2021, staff at Messinger Woods released it near where it was originally rescued. This successful rehabilitation is a testament to the effectiveness of our conservation efforts.

In February 2025, DEC received a report that this eagle was alive and well in Georgia. Staff from Birds Georgia, a chapter of the National Audubon Society, photographed the bird in October 2024 as it perched on a sand dune along the Cumberland Island National Seashore. While it is not unusual for an eagle to migrate south for the winter, we can’t be sure where exactly this bird has been since its release in 2021. It may stay in Georgia or migrate north each year.

Wildlife staff perform the task of banding eagles to help gather valuable information on movements, ranges, survival and mortality. Each bird receives two bands, one on each leg, a state-color band with a field-readable alphanumeric code and a silver federal band with a unique nine-digit number. If this eagle had not been banded, we would have never known if it survived or where it went. Many thanks to the folks at Birds Georgia for reporting the band and to Cornell Wildlife Hospital and Messinger Woods for their invaluable contribution in nursing this bird back to full health.

Messinger Woods is dedicated to promoting community awareness, education and instruction, involvement, understanding, appreciation, and acceptance of our wildlife to conserve it. To co-exist and protect each other, our natural surroundings, and all the inhabitants of our earth by education. They promote quality care and medical attention for debilitated wildlife in a professional hospital setting, with the goal of increasing successful wildlife releases. If you need help with a wounded wildlife critter, call Messenger at 716-345-4539 and leave a message if not answered. This number is checked seven days a week. Visit them at https://www.messingerwoods.org/. To help effortlessly, you can also log on to https://Amazonsmile.com and choose Messenger Woods as your charitable organization. At no cost to you, Amazon will donate 0.5% of what you spend with them. Pretty cool.

Gotta love the outdoors.

CALENDAR

March 29: New York Hunter Education, Springville Field/Stream, 8900 Chaise Road, Springville, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., register online: https://www.register-ed.com/events/register/224954; Free, must complete homework prior to class.

March 29: Sportsmen’s Raffle Day, Southtowns Walleye Association of WNY, noon-4:30 p.m., $25 entry, 5895 Southwestern Blvd., Hamburg, Info: Jim Stechenfinger, 716-310-4646.

March 30: WNY Environmental Federation, quarterly meeting, canceled

March 30: WNY 3-D Archery Winter League Shoot-off, open to public, West Falls Conservation, 55 Bridge St., 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., $15, kids shoot free, info: 716-863-7342.

April 1: Opening Day for NYS Inland Trout Season, enjoy.

NOTE: Send Calendar info or related outdoor news to forrestfisher35@yahoo.com.