Marin County Parks Rangers Help Grounded Bald Eagle

By Jessica Mullins

Marin County Parks Ranger Christin Lopez was able to get unusually close to the first Bald Eagle she has ever spotted in a Marin County park.

Lopez, along with a fellow ranger and officials from the Marin Humane Society, recently helped a grounded eagle at Novato’s Stafford Lake.

Novato Blvd. drivers stopped at the park last week and told the rangers there was an eagle on the side of the road.

“I was a little skeptical it was really a Bald Eagle,” Lopez said. “I’ve never seen one [at Stafford Lake] before. We’ve heard reports of them in the past and I know we have reports of them in Tomales Bay.”

But it really was one — an adult bald eagle. It appeared to have gotten into some sort of trouble that left it in a location it couldn’t easily fly out of, Lopez said.

The eagle was on the northern side of the Novato Blvd., standing on the ground in a small space between a fence and the road.

“It couldn’t get back into the air from where it was,” she said. “It was hopping and flapping its wings.”

The rangers were initially worried the bird of prey was injured and called the Marin Humane Society to help with the situation. While they were waiting for humane society officials, they kept an eye on the eagle, which was panting heavily, “probably from exhaustion,” and snapped a few photos, Lopez said.

Once the humane society arrived at the scene, four rescuers, including Lopez, worked to corral the bird back into the park.

It wasn’t long before they realized the bird wasn’t injured at all. Much like a Boeing 747, eagles require a long span to run along and build up speed before they take off and fly into the air. The eagle hadn’t been able to run its required takeoff distance because of the passing cars on Novato Blvd.

As they herded the bird back into the park, it eventually reached a walking path and “used it like a runway,” running along the pathway and flapping its wings, until it could lift off into the air and soar across the lake, Lopez said.

“[It was] a happy ending to a tough situation for our majestic Bald Eagle,” Lopez said.