Cool Judy, for finding those.
Bella was very feisty. She has always been feisty, but even more so since she has gained more strength. It was really evident since she finished her molt that she needed to be released.
Yes, she looks a bit awkward with her wing that healed a bit crooked, but she is a good flier and strong. I think some of the earlier concerns about her flying labourously was that she was simply
fat. Birds can't fly very well when they are overweight. I will check next time at OWL how heavy she was on release day (but I am not there til 2 weeks from now, so Jewill might pick up on that)
but I am sure she got a good share of the food every day.
I know people are worried about her, but I know she will be fine. She has as good a chance as any eagle out there. With all the available food and other eagles for company she will thrive.
I don't think we will be seeing Bella again.. she will be ok.

I had a long conversation with her last Sunday in Field Flights..... (now before you picture me standing in front of her lecturing her..........lol...... it was a silent one..... ) and wished her well.
She stayed on her perch for the entire time..... it was one of those special moments.

Be well Bella

Ellen

Hi Judy(JRK)...Thank you for posting these.... it brought tears to me eyes :cry1:.... it is always so special and touching when we see an injured eagle being released..Thank you to O.W.L .for the amazing work they do .... i will continue to make donations to OWL yearly....

Bella .. Fly free and have a long and happy life ... with food a plenty...

I know that Debs will have lots of pictures as well.... looking forward to seeing them Debs... i know how excited you were to be there, as Bella was so close to your heart...


ELLEN...Thank you for your post...i was teary eyed , i could just seeing you silently talking to Bella... there is no doubt in my mind that Bella knew how much she was loved and cared for.... i truly believe she will be fine.. Special Thank you to all at O.W.L. My one wish is to visit O.W.L. Rehabilitation Facility some day... it would be a dream come true..


Bev...

woooohooooo Judy I found them too! here's another one with Ralph doing the 'toss' with Bella a little further away....go Bella GOooooo!!




awww Ellen I loved the talk you had with her in the field flights. Her feistyness will serve her well I bet.

Hi Bev, me too with the tears it's a very joyous occassion to see them back where they were meant to be Grab me on your way by to OWL girlfriend and yes I'd like to thank all the gang at OWL for all you do and today for all you have done for sweet Bella and her beautiful markings.

:hello:jkr, thanks so much for posting the photos of Bella's release and the link to the Vancouver Sun article I know I would have been very emotional had I been there watching:nod: I'm glad Debs was able to go and will look forward to seeing her pics when she gets time to post them. sandra gee will be posting some pics as well but she might have to wait until she gets home after the festival. They were both thrilled to be there to witness Bella's release
:hello:Ellen, thanks so much for your report. It's always nice to come here and read your reports and I sure miss your wonderful photos I quite often talk to the birds when I am out on a field trip; hubby thinks it's a little odd that I talk to birds

Judy (jkr) and Lori (yalitldevl)

Glad to see you gals found some pictures of Bella's release. I located this article in the Mission City Record newspaper:
Bella's Release

Of course I'm looking forward to anything that Karen W. or Debs can post too. There can never be too many pictures or articles about an eagle release.

ETA: Oh, oh, oh...I just found this on YouTube (thanks to KetaVancouver for uploading the video). There is a First Nations Ceremony until the 2.15 mark and I don't know if it's just my computer, but the sound was very low when Bev was talking, so I cranked it up, only to be blasted out of my chair at the end, so be warned!:
Bella's Release 2

ETA (again): now that I look at it a 2nd time, this may be an old one, possibly from a couple of years ago (oops, sorry) but I'll leave it anyway.

:hello:jewill, thanks for posting the link to the article in the Mission City Record.

Debs has posted a bunch of her pics of Bella's release and the eagles along the river on the 'Nesters' thread here:
forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=1110&mode=&show=15&page=249

Unexpectedly I ended up at the FV Bald Eagle Festival today representing OWL. Quite a few volunteers showed up and Rob asked if I wanted to go with him and Martina, so I did. The understatement of the year is that it was freezing cold up there! Someone told me that with the wind chill it was -15º C. I had little Snoopy (Saw-whet owl) with me and while he didn’t seem to mind it too much, the only thing that saved me was that I had about 6 layers on under my jacket. Oh well, it was all for a good cause, and there were lots of really nice people that came to talk to us. Plus we took in about $200 in donations, so it was well worth a little teeth chattering. I didn’t get a chance to look for any eagles, but several were flying within sight of our tent, so I’m sure everyone got a spectacular view from the lookout points.
So, I wasn’t doing anything in bird care today, but when I arrived this morning Martina told me that a little Pygmy owl had come in yesterday. He had been found clinging to the front grill of a truck, hanging on for dear life! Since they are so cute Martina and I just had to take a look and when we got to his kennel we found his little head stuck in the door with his body hanging down on the inside! Rob was going to cut the kennel door off of him, but Martina managed to slip his head back through the grate. Good thing he only weighs a couple of ounces because he appeared to be none the worse for wear. Needless to say he was moved to another kennel with much smaller spaces in the door. When we got back from Harrison I checked on him again and he is just fine; he will probably be released quite soon.
Debs: thank you so much for posting your pics of Bella's release and the surrounding area on the Nesters thread (see sassyk's link above). They are fabulous and I'm so glad you got to witness it .

Howdy Jewill! I'm late again! :hello: I think the award show last night booting off my normal shows threw me for a loop...hehe

Thanks for the links and weeeeee to you ending up at the festival. Maybe not so weee about the cold but still I bet you had fun. That's great that you collected $200 that will help a little with things and little Snoopy did well in the cold.

awww to the wee Pygmy Owl, gee first the truck then he tries to hang himself! My heart would have stopped finding him that way! Thank goodness the wee guy is ok and I guess that was a lesson learned huh?

I found a couple more pics to put here, one was taken by Paul J Henderson of Sonsie and Rob and the other is another view of Bella's release with Ralph. I figure it's good to have them here right? See you Wed my friend