♪♪ -[ Chuckles ] So this is a little American alligator.

It's not a crocodile.

Okay, here we go.

Here's a couple more.

In fact, one of them just flew.

♪♪ ♪♪ Bald eagles have become a pretty common sight here in the Lowcountry, but, you know, that hasn't always been the case.

Researcher Tom Murphy has watched this species go from almost extinct to pretty abundant.

Tom, thanks for joining us today.

-You're welcome, Tony.

I've been working with the birds for a long time.

This is actually the 40th season that I've been studying bald eagles here in South Carolina.

We flew for two years doing aerial surveys looking for nests, and we could only locate 13 pairs of eagles in the state... -So... -...in the entire state.

-...in the entire state of South Carolina, 13 pairs.

-Yeah.

In 1977, and when I retired a few years ago, we were up to 253.

-And you imagine to see more than that now?

-Yeah.

We think there's probably 400 nests in the state now.

-Oh, that's a great success story, isn't it?

-Yeah.

It's hard to really realize how close we came to losing the birds as a nesting species.

-So what were the real causes for the birds disappearing?

-In the background, it was a lot of shooting mortality, a predator-control mentality, but then what really tipped it over was contaminants from DDT causing eggshell thinning and no chick production.

We know that it was true in our pelicans, so we don't have any data for the eagles, but we assume that they had the same thing.

-So, Tom, DDT was a really common pesticide used all over the United States, right?

-It was.

It was developed during World War II, and after that, it had widespread use all over the United States.

-And it's really persistent in the environment.

-Yeah, it lasts for years and years in the environment and has many by-products, and one of those by-products causes the calcium apparatus in birds to malfunction.

So you get very thin-shelled eggs, which usually are broken before they ever hatch.

-So, Tom, we have an active eagle nest right behind us, don't we?

-Right.

We're about halfway through the nesting season this time of year, and that's a very typical nest.

And you see it's very large, and the reason for that is that the chicks are different ages because the female starts incubating the egg as soon as it's laid.

So there's maybe a week difference in the age of the chicks, and what that means is the smaller chick has to be able to get far enough away from the other chick that it doesn't get pecked.

And that's one of the reasons for having the large nests, and also, you've got two chicks.

Eventually, each will have a 6 1/2-foot wingspan, so you got 13 feet of eagle wings in that nest.

And when they practice flying, they can knock each other out, so again, the large nest facilitates keeping the birds in the nest, along with Mom and Dad.

-What would you guess this nest weighs?

-Mostly, these nests look like they're about 400 or 500 pounds, but there was one that was recovered after the nest tree fell that was over 1,000 pounds.

-And the adults continue to put new material in them every year, right?

-Yeah.

They'll stay in the same nest and in the same tree as long as that tree is healthy, and they add sticks every year.

And they add sticks all the way through the nesting season, but that's a flat platform on the top of that nest, Tony.

It's not like a robin's nest that's, you know, concave, and it's all lined with Spanish moss and grasses and stuff like that.

So when we were banding, you could sit in an eagle nest and feel very comfortable.

-So, Tom, you've actually climbed, well, a lot of these trees to get inside the nests, right?

-Climbing to the nests is actually relatively easy.

Getting around the nests sometimes is difficult, and once you're in the nest, it's quite comfortable.

-But, of course, what you were doing is monitoring the nest, checking on eggs, and gaining important information so that we can take care of eagles, right?

-Yeah.

What we were doing was, for six years, we banded eagle chicks, and we were doing that in order to determine how old they were when they first reproduce.

And the other thing was to know whether our birds that fledged here will actually come back here to nest.

We didn't really know that at the time, and it turns out they do.

They come right back to South Carolina, even as juveniles, and eventually wind up nesting in South Carolina.

-Well, Tom, I know this nest is active, but I don't see much activity right now.

-Yeah.

The chicks aren't large enough to be seen quite yet.

Another couple weeks we could, but there are other nests on the property, and we can go check those out.

-Let's go check one of those out.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Yeah, Tony.

This was the only nest on the plantation that got blown out during the hurricane, and the birds have rebuilt another nest now.

-So these are not eggs, but probably chicks, right?

-Yeah.

Well, if she's sitting up so high, it indicates that she's brooding chicks rather than incubating eggs.

-And so will she actually sit and cover them up, or will she...?

-She'll sit over them, so she's protecting them from hot or cold.

-Okay, so these guys are 4 weeks old or so?

-I would say that they're probably coming up on 4 weeks because she's still brooding them, so they're still young.

-So how much longer before they start to -- Well, how much longer before they fledge?

-Well, they'll fledge in 10 to 12 weeks, and that's from a small chick up to a full-size eagle.

-Okay.

Like you always say, you know, "A young eagle that's ready to fledge is full-size."

-That's right.

They're fully grown.

Actually, their flight feathers are longer than the adults'.

-And the babies lack that beautiful white adult coloration, right?

-Yeah.

They don't have the white head or the white tail until about 3 1/2.

Also, the eye is dark and the bill is black.

-So, Tom, once they fledge, they're not feeding themselves for awhile, right?

-No.

It's about 4 to 6 weeks where the adults continue to feed them, and they are seeing the adult fly in with a fish.

And they'll do a begging call, and then the adults will come over and feed them.

And they don't make any attempt to catch anything.

They don't have to learn.

What they have to do is... -They just kind of... -...just build up muscle tone.

-...sit there and scream and expect stuff to be... -That's right, and then they get, you know, kind of bratty, and I guess it's time for the adults to leave, and... -And the adults will actually kind of get them to move out of the territory eventually, right?

-Yeah, you know, they just leave, and then the young birds just start wandering around.

You know, that's the transition, so it's real difficult for the birds to survive because... -Oh, absolutely.

-...they're learning to feed on their own.

-Eagles eat -- I know -- Of course, we know they eat fish.

What else do they eat?

-Well, coot is one of the primary sources when they can get it.

Coot is not really a duck.

It's a member of the rail family.

-And, of course, they eat a lot of dead fish, too, right?

-Right.

They are scavengers, so... -Well, I know -- I saw an eagle swoop down in a very busy highway one time and try and get a possum or a dead raccoon or something, obviously a roadkill, and that scares me because obviously there's the chance of highway mortality.

-You know, we're seeing more and more of that.

-What are some of the other perils that eagles face today?

-With the young birds or on a nest site, great horned owls can be a competitor, and owls will actually take an eagle nest away from them.

-Okay, so I've seen eagles kind of flying all kinds of acrobatics, and that's typically related to mating behavior, right?

-Primarily.

Sometimes it's defensive, but a mated pair will come together and maybe lock foot-to-foot and cartwheel through the air.

-And falling out of the sky, right?

-Yeah.

They'll plunge.

They'll lock up both feet and just come down at a high speed, and at the last second, they'll break off.

-That's just incredible stuff.

-You know, they cruise about 55 miles an hour, but they can accomplish speeds over 100 miles an hour when they're in the stoop.

-Do they really mate for life?

-As far as we know from our banded birds, which we followed through their entire breeding career, we've never had an eagle disappear from a territory and then show up somewhere else, so we do think that in a normal situation, they do mate for life.

-And if one of the adults is killed, so what happens then?

-It doesn't matter whether it's the male or the female.

The remaining bird will stay on the territory and maintain it and recruit in a replacement.

-And this nest is -- I mean, this one is in a dead tree.

That's not typical, right?

-That's very atypical.

It's very rare we see them in dead trees, but after Hurricane Hugo, we started seeing a little bit of it, and then occasionally because of the limb structure, they'll accept that.

-But the idea is the nest is pretty heavy, and if it's in a dead tree, it might fall out, as opposed to... -That's correct.

-...a living tree, which would, presumably, support a lot more weight.

-It does, and it will have a greater longevity.

Obviously, this nest is not going to last but a couple more years.

-So, Tom, how are eagles doing here in the Lowcountry now?

-I'd never thought, you know, 40 years ago that the recovery would be this quick, but once we got DDT banned and the shooting mortality went down, recovery occurred rather rapidly, maybe more than 10% a year increase.

-Well, I'll tell you what.

We appreciate the work that scientists like you are doing for eagles here in the Lowcountry.

-Well, we spent a lot of time with them and enjoyed doing it.

♪♪ ♪♪ -This is Stephen Schabel, and he's the Education Director for the Center for Birds of Prey.

Stephen, thanks for letting us come today.

-Oh, great to have you, Tony.

First of all, pardon all the water.

We've had a little bit of rain... -Yeah, we're... -...the last couple of days.

-...standing in about six inches of water, aren't we?

-A little slushy, but that's tropical South Carolina for you.

Thanks for coming out.

-All right.

Well, tell us just a little bit about the mission of this facility.

-Excellent.

Yeah, so we're a nonprofit organization started back in 1991, and our focus is on understanding our world through birds.

So the mission as it reads is to identify and address environmental issues through treating birds in medical care, through educating people about birds of prey, through research revolving around birds of prey.

We know that because of their nature, because they're everywhere we go and they're sensitive and conspicuous, birds are great indicators of environmental health, especially the ones at the top of the food web, so we do a lot of different things under one roof.

My job is to teach people about birds of prey, but when we started, there was a need for caring for birds that have been injured in the wild.

We see birds that come in having been hit by cars, having been shot, having been poisoned, almost entirely human-related activities causing the problems, and what we realized was that treating the birds is great, helps some of those birds go back out into the wild, helps us to identify what the problems are, but really, if we want to get to the root of the issue, we need to help people understand that they're a part of the problem and also a part of the solution.

So education grew very quickly out of that initial medical care for birds.

-Okay.

I think the first thing we can do is go visit the clinic, right?

-Absolutely.

I think we've got a bald eagle who's in treatment over there, so we should go over and check that out.

-Okay.

Sounds good.

-All right.

♪♪ -So, Tony, I want to introduce you to our director of... -Hi, Tony.

-...our medical clinic, Debbie Mauney.

-Hey, Debbie.

How are you doing?

Thank you for letting us do this today.

-Good, how about you?

Thank you for coming.

-And so, obviously, we have a bald eagle.

-We do.

We do.

-Who's this?

This is an adult male bald eagle that we found in March.

He was in the Francis Marion National Forest, unable to fly, and we brought him -- we captured him, brought him to the clinic, and determined he had a luxated left elbow, which means dislocated.

-Is there something I can do to kind of help with this today?

-Absolutely.

We're going to anesthetize the bird, and -- -That's a good idea.

-Yeah.

-A good first step.

-That makes our work a lot easier.

And get an X-ray just to determine what condition the elbow joint is in at this time.

And this is all you want to do.

You want to...

Between your index finger and third finger, grasp the bird's head and then hold the mask here.

-Okay.

-All right.

And now we just wait quietly for him to go to sleep.

-It's just amazing animals.

♪♪ -All right.

So I think this bird is completely asleep at this point and we can begin our procedures.

-Okay.

-So if you feel this elbow joint right here... Take your thumb and your third finger down there.

-Oh, yeah.

-You feel it's a little thick right there.

Well, now compare it to this one, and you should be able to feel the difference.

-Oh, yeah, big, big difference.

-Right.

The tissue is inflamed.

All right.

-Boy.

-So what we're going to do for -- To give him a little bit of physical therapy... -Do you want me to switch sides with you?

-...we can check the range of motion.

-Okay.

-I'm going to grab the wrist and the elbow, and it's -- -It's so interesting, and, you know, you look at a wing like this, and it's... -Right.

-You kind of think of your own wrist and your own elbow, and it's kind of -- -Exactly.

The anatomy is actually identical to ours.

-Yeah, but on a wing, it just looks really different.

-Yeah.

-Doesn't it?

-It looks very different, but yes.

It's the same, so this is his wrist.

These would be his fingers.

-Right.

-He has a radius and ulna, just like we do, and then he has a humerus.

And it all connects to the elbow here, and so I just want to make sure this joint doesn't slip or have any crepitus or any unusual movement when I extend it.

-How does it feel?

-It feels nice and stable.

Okay.

-So... And what other kinds of birds do you guys get?

-We do all birds of prey native to South Carolina, as well as shorebirds and pelagic birds.

-I sent you an anhinga one time, and I think I was -- It stabbed me about 20 times... -Yeah.

They're good at that.

-...between the time I caught it and the time I brought it into you guys.

-Yes.

Yes.

Anhingas will do that.

-But you were telling me a little bit earlier, so what -- You know, what are the typical birds that come in?

What kinds of injuries?

-Right.

-So if you get a raptor, what has typically happened to it?

-Right.

Very often, about half of our birds come in due to collision, where that's most often from a car, but it could be a window or a radio tower.

The other half are things that we can't even imagine, and I've been doing this over 20 years and I think I've seen everything.

But every day is different.

-Yeah.

-Birds come in with, you know, a tiny little piece of rope an anhinga had hung in the tip of its beak, and he was starving to death because of one little tiny piece of rope that was on the ground.

-And you told me -- You were talking to me earlier about lead poisoning, too, so they sometimes ingest?

-Yeah.

-Is that from ingesting lead?

-They do.

Lead poisoning is becoming more and more of an issue.

Almost 70% of our eagles that are admitted are suffering from lead poisoning.

We can treat it with chelation therapy, and we're very successful if we catch it early enough.

But the eagles get lead poisoning from ingesting, most typically, gut piles that are left behind, and they would eat the lead fragments and ingest them.

And then because of their physiology, they break down the lead.

-Oh, okay, so the animal is shot with buckshot or something.

-Exactly.

-And they eat -- Yeah.

That's... -So now we're going to put him on a board and get a radiograph.

♪♪ So we've completed our medical procedures with this bird, and now we're going to give him oxygen to wake him up slowly.

-So I've got his little... -We have the... -...oxygen... -...oxygen mask on.

-Yeah.

That definitely...

Eyes are open, and... -Yeah.

The eyes are opening up there.

We keep... -...blinking.

-...their head covered during this stage to reduce the stress, and you can imagine if you're waking up from anesthesia, bright lights in your eyes is not what you want.

-So hopefully, this bird is going to continue to improve, and then it's going to be released.

-Yes.

Yes.

Everything looks great on him.

I feel very confident that he's going to be a successful release, and it makes us very happy.

-I'll tell you what.

I mean, not only do you guys get to work with cool animals like this, but you have success stories with these birds actually being released.

-Yes, and that is the heart of our work.

-And I sure appreciate what you guys do... -Thank you.

-...for all of us... -Thank you for coming.

-...and for these birds.

So [Chuckles] I kind of feel like I should be looking over my shoulder a little bit.

-I don't think you have much to worry about.

Like most wild things, they see us, and they want to be somewhere else, even these birds that are quite used to being around people.

These are birds that have been with us for over a decade, both of them birds that were injured in the wild but couldn't be returned to the wild as a result of their injuries, but what they do is they help us to teach people about what's happening out there, and they're really great ambassadors.

-You know, the thing that's so great about people being able to visit these birds and see them up close is we've all seen eagles, and many of us have seen eagles.

But when you're this close, you realize just how big a bird this is.

-Yeah.

Absolutely.

-I mean, they are impressive.

-It's something that -- Being able to get close to the animal, have an experience with them in a different plane than most people would normally have the opportunity, that's a great thing, and it also opens the door for us to talk about the things that are perhaps a little less pleasant.

They're facing issues from collision with car to gunshot to lead poisoning to you name it.

Bad things are happening out there, and we're seeing it first through these birds, which is important.

-But it's important to point out that eagles have come back quite a bit.

-Oh, absolutely.

We start most of our tours right here in front of these eagles, and one thing we can talk about is how they're a great success story.

-Can't help but notice how bright yellow the feet are.

-Oh, yeah.

They're... That's one of those sort of hallmarks of the bald eagle, that bright-yellow beak and bright-yellow feet.

We see yellow feet in a lot of the birds of prey, especially the bird eaters, but in the eagles, eating fish gives them plenty of carotenoids, I guess, in their feet to be bright yellow like that.

-So what else are you going to show us today?

-Well, we've got 50 species of birds of prey here at the center from all over the world.

Why don't we go have a look at some of those?

-Sounds good.

-All right.

So, Tony, one of the really cool things we have the opportunity to do here is show people trained birds of prey in flight up close, and we've got one of our trained birds here, so if you want to... -Okay.

I've got this little piece of... -Yep.

-Put it right here?

-And she comes.

-Oh, that was great.

-So this is a red-tailed hawk that was hit by a car and was left blind in one eye, but she can fly, which is really cool, to be able to show people something like this right up close, whereas in the wild, they might only see them from half a mile away.

-I think she's kind of looking me over to see if I have something else.

-Yeah.

They do learn quickly, and it is based on positive reinforcement.

They know that if they do what we ask them to do, they're going to get rewarded.

-And this way, you know, kids and anybody in the public gets a chance to see a bird fly like this.

-See it fly right up.

-And it is impressive.

I mean... -Oh, without question.

One of the birds that we spend a lot of time talking about and one of my favorites are the vultures.

We have a black vulture today.

Megan is going to bring him in from over here.

A lot of folks see vultures, and they immediately kind of get turned off.

-Oh, I just -- I love it.

-But... -They're fantastic.

-...they are amazing birds, highly intelligent, and when we think about them in terms of importance, these guys are critical to our environment.

These are not only a scavenger, but a scavenger that doesn't really cost us anything in the process.

There are lots of animals that would gladly eat dead things if they were available, you know, the eagles we saw and rats and dogs, but vultures do it very efficiently.

This is a bird that's actually a human imprint.

Somebody found him as a hatchling and took him home and fed him, and that's why he can't be released back into the wild.

He essentially thinks he's a human.

Close to a five-foot wingspan on the black vulture, and he weighs a full two kilos, so almost five pounds.

That's big in bird terms, one of the largest birds that we work with here at the center.

♪♪ Well, Tony, we've got a really exciting opportunity for you guys today.

It just so happens that we have an eagle that needs to be released.

This is Jim Elliott, our executive director.

-Hey.

-Jim, thanks for doing this with us.

This is exciting.

-I'm glad the timing worked out this way.

This is some of the best part of what we do.

-So tell me a little bit about this bird.

So obviously, it's ready to go.

-It is ready to go.

It's been in the flight enclosure and building the endurance that it needs to go and give us the confidence to send it away, but it's a bird that came from Beaufort County.

He is an adult.

We suspect a male because he's relatively small for an eagle, but no real overt injuries.

But looked like he was in a territorial dispute, perhaps, with another bird and got the short end of that deal, but now ready to go again, so we're all... -All right.

Well, cool.

I guess you'll take that little hood off.

-You want to take that off?

-I'm no eagle expert, but I bet we take the hood off first.

-Yeah.

You can do it.

Just do it in that direction.

You... -Can I just pull it straight off?

-Yeah, quickly as you can.

There we go.

See?

There you go, little guy.

-Boy, the eyes are amazing.

-We're going to give him a second just to adjust to see where he is.

♪♪ -Oh, my gosh.

Boy, they are awesome.

-That white stands out on the trees, doesn't it?

♪♪ -Looks like he's flying -- Wow.

That's -- Nice bank there.

-Yeah.

Look at that.

-So I'll give this back to you.

-Yeah.

Thank you.

We'll use it.

-Guys, that was awesome.

I mean, that was just incredible.

-That was.

Yeah.

He did well.

-I'm so appreciative of the work you guys are doing here -- education, rehab.

This is an amazing place... -Well, thank you.

-...and thanks for letting us join you today.

♪♪ So this is an eagle that fell out of a nest.

In fact, its nest is right up there.

It's about 80 feet high or something like that, and the animal actually fell and was tangled in some Spanish moss and hung there for some time until we had some really strong winds that blew it out of the nest, and we were able to scoop it up, take it back to the nature center.

Now, it's important to note that we worked very closely with South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and the Center for Birds of Prey in Awendaw to see if we could help this bird.

Veterinarian Dr. L. Siegers did a physical examination and gave the bird fluids, and we were also able to get it to eat a meal.

Now, this is a really young bird.

It's only about 4 weeks old.

Yeah, but, boy, look at the feet.

Look at the talons, and, of course, quite a bill on it.

This bill as an adult would be kind of a yellow color, and the feet would be even more bright yellow.

But spectacular talons.

Of course, these are good for grasping fish and other prey.

I think it's -- The bird seems to be really in pretty good shape.

Now let's see what we can do to get this bird back in the nest.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ And you might support the bottom a little bit.

♪♪ So we have our eagle in the box, and Bluffton Fire Department has graciously agreed to take us up to return this bird, and so the idea is to get it back in the nest.

We think there's another chick in there, and the adults are really spending a lot of time flying around, so this could be kind of exciting.

♪♪ So we're headed up to put this bird back in the nest, but tell you what, it's a little -- I know you're used to this, but it's a little higher than I'm used to.

That's for sure.

♪♪ And this thing is probably 8 feet across or something like that.

♪♪ So we're on the edge of the nest, and we're just kind of looking.

There's all kinds of guano and stuff from the birds, but if you look right here, that's the tail of a stingray.

I thought it was a snake at first, but here is that spine, so obviously, these eagles have been eating stingrays.

♪♪ ♪♪ Here goes.

There we go.

So we've got the bird in.

There's already a chick in there, so -- And we hear Mom and Dad coming around, so I think we'd probably better get on down.

[ Chuckles ] So we're headed back down.

We hope it's going to be okay.

There's always the chance that the other chick may have pushed it out or it may be outcompeting this bird.

We hope that that's not the case, but we'll kind of deal with that if we need to.

Anyway, hope this story ends well, but I'll tell you what.

This is awesome.

♪♪ ♪♪ So here we are back at the eagle nest, and if you look, you can see one animal that's directly above the nest.

And then there's one kind of peeking over the right side, it looks like.

So these animals have grown considerably.

In fact, one of them is kind of standing up facing into the wind and flapping its wings, presumably to strengthen those flight muscles.

These guys look really good.

♪♪ Since eagles are pretty common around here, I think we have a real tendency to kind of take them for granted, but we have to remember, this is a species that came perilously close to extinction.

Tell you what.

It's really good to see these guys up and ready to take flight, and I look forward to seeing them flying around in the skies in the Lowcountry.

Thanks for joining us on "Coastal Kingdom."

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪