Oak Lawn Bald Eagle Couldn't Survive Second Brush With Danger

The injured bald eagle rescued alongside I-55 earlier this week that died hours later possibly of West Nile virus was the same eagle rescued from an Oak Lawn backyard in February 2014.

The majestic bird was rescued by Oak Lawn animal control officer Barry Adamczyk and Rob Negrete, an animal control officer from Stickney Township.

Both men came to the raptor’s aid when a resident called to report a large bird, “maybe an eagle,” that had been hanging around his backyard near 89th Street and Ridgeland Avenue. Adamczyk and Negrete gently loaded the eagle into a pet carrier and took him to the Willowbrook Wildlife Center in Glen Ellyn.

“I never thought I would come face to face with [an eagle],” Adamcyzk said. “It’s a huge, great thing to see.”

Video by Forest Preserves of DuPage County

For many residents, news of the eagle’s rescue couldn’t have come at a better time. The winter of 2014 saw a spike in structural fires in Oak Lawn. Two elderly women died in their home, and a house exploded following a domestic disturbance. A beloved family died in an apparent murder-suicide.

So when news of the eagle’s rescue spread throughout the village, it provided a lift that residents needed after so many tragic events. He became our eagle and we were all rooting for his recovery.

During surgery, veterinarians removed a buckshot from the eagle’s injured wing. After nearly two months of rehab, the Oak Lawn eagle was released back into the wild in Pratt’s Wayne Woods near Bartlett.

His rescuers, Adamczyk and Negrete, had the honor of opening the door to the eagle’s carrier. For several moments, the Oak Lawn eagle sat inside, until finally, after a gentle tap on the side of the carrier, he flew out soaring high into the sky.

We prefer not to remember the poor bird looking sick and distressed that was found along the interstate, but the proud, majestic raptor we saw flying high in the sky last year, his brown and white feathers gleaming in the sun.

In 2012, a pair of bald eagles were discovered nesting in a Palos Township forest preserve along with their eaglets. It was the first confirmed sighting of bald eagles in a Cook County forest preserve in more than a century after being brought back from the brink of extinction.

This past January, a severely injured female eagle, which are larger than males, was found in Stickney Township. The female eagle was eventually euthanized.

A reader on Burbank Beat’s Facebook page suggested making a donation in the Oak Lawn eagle’s memory to the National Audubon Society’s eagle adoption program. For $40, your symbolic adoption of a bald eagle helps the Audubon Society protect eagles and their habitats. Plus you get a nice plush eagle in return.

We don’t know if these two doomed eagles are the same pair spotted in Palos Township, but we’d certainly like to see eagles remain in the area. For now, the skies seem emptier without them.