BANGOR, Maine — A bald eagle nicknamed “Bangor Mom,” who became a local celebrity when she was rescued three years ago, has died after she was found sick from lead poisoning again on Thursday.
The 8½-year-old eagle, which was banded as an eaglet in June 2008, died overnight from lead poisoning, said Diane Winn, co-founder of Avian Haven, a bird rehabilitation center in Freedom where the bird was taken.
“It’s very difficult to say” where the lead came from, Winn said Friday. “The most common source of lead that eagles scavenge is game remains.”
Since the bird’s nest is in downtown, she speculated that the eagle possibly found a crow that had been shot with lead.
James Morang, his girlfriend, Aleesha Cooper, and friend Jeff Joseph were searching along the Kenduskeag Stream for any clues that would help them find their missing friend, 29-year-old Paul Francis III, who disappeared just over a month ago, and discovered the sick bird about 11 a.m. Thursday near the footbridge that crosses the stream close to Coe Park.
The trio called for help and Warden Rick Ouellette and DIF&W biologist Brad Allen were able to easily capture the sick eagle and get her to Avian Haven.
Later Thursday, Avian Haven got a second lead-poisoned bird from the Calais area. The prognosis for that bird, an adult male, is guarded at best, Winn said.
Readers first heard about Bangor Mom when she was found disoriented on a Bangor sidewalk on May 11, 2014. Her mate, also apparently ill, lost its grip on a branch, tumbled into a power line and died as observers watched.
Biologists rescued two eaglets and reunited them with their mother at the Freedom bird rehab facility. Bangor Mom was released in Brewer in June 2014 and promptly found her new mate, a younger male. The pair took up housekeeping in her former nest and spent the summer of 2015 raising two eaglets of their own.
Her first set of eaglets were released in September 2014 in the Augusta area.
Maine has several rules in place to prevent lead poisoning in animals, including ones that require nontoxic ammunition when hunting migratory birds and that outlaw lead sinkers for fishing to protect Maine loons.
Nontoxic shot that does not cause sickness and death when ingested by birds and is approved for use by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must be used while hunting wild ducks, geese, brant, rails or coots, according to Maine law.
Nontoxic shot must also be used when hunting on all National Wildlife Refuges that permit hunting of upland game, except when hunting deer and turkey with a shotgun, the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife website states.
Lead poisoning has been documented as one of the main causes of loon mortality in Maine, which is why the state enacted new rules for lead fishing lures.
In September, it became illegal to sell bare, or unpainted, lead jigs for fishing that weigh 1 ounce or less or measure 2½ inches or less in length. In September 2017, the use of all bare lead jigs will be banned.
Lead poisoning is not just a Maine bird problem. It’s also a serious threat to California condors, another carnivorous scavenger that has been listed as endangered since 1967. California created a non-lead hunting zone around the condor’s habitat in 2007 and in 2015 started to phase in rules to ban lead ammunition altogether.
Winn thinks Mainers should voluntarily switch to non-lead ammunition.
“This is not about gun rights or the Second Amendment or anything like that. It’s about hunting with environmentally responsible ammunition,” she said.
Winn said residents can help prevent eagles and other birds from suffering the same fate if they choose nontoxic ammunition for hunting.
“If this bird’s death can help inspire people to switch to non-lead ammo, then her death will not be in vain,” she said.
The remains of Bangor Mom will be sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife-operated National Eagle Repository in Colorado, which takes bald and golden eagles and their feathers and makes them available to Native American tribes for ceremonies.
BDN writers Aislinn Sarnacki and John Holyoke contributed to this report.