04/21/2026
To my dear friends and family in the powwow community, I encourage you to support the ACCA, a bird care organization that depends entirely on donations. Please take a moment to read the post below. My daughter is a part of Cheat Lake Animal Hospital, which has a connection to this organization. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1B2mxauRwP/?mibextid=wwXIfr
The nestling bald eagle known as USS11 is bright and alert this morning, and has a healthy appetite. So far, its favorite food seems to be trout (with the hooks removed, of course!)
This eaglet’s story is amazing. If you haven’t heard about it yet, here’s the short version:
On Saturday, viewers of the US Steel eagle camera nest in West Mifflin, PA, noticed that one of the baby eagles ingested a fish hook. Our friends at Tamarack Wildlife Center were contacted, and along with folks from US Steel, they sprang into action, coordinating permission to retrieve the eaglet from the nest from the landowner as well as federal and state authorities. A team of arborists was involved, and rather quickly the eagle was safely removed and lowered down from the nest.
Our veterinarian, Dr. Jesse Fallon, was contacted to see if he could help the eaglet and perform surgery if necessary. He agreed, and the bird was transported to us. Radiographs were taken at Cheat Lake Animal Hospital showing the location of the hook in the eaglet’s gastrointestinal tract. At first, Dr. Fallon attempted to remove the hook via endoscopy, but when that was unsuccessful, he performed surgery to remove the hook. Upon removal, we discovered that the hook still had synthetic bait and fishing line attached to it. Special thank you to RVT Cayce Dakon and Tricia Mayle, who both assisted with the surgery.
So far, the eaglet is recovering well and gaining weight, and we’ve moved it to a location where it can see and hear an adult bald eagle. If all continues to go well, we hope to return the eaglet to its nest in the next week or so.
I’ll post links to news stories in the comments if you want to read on.
Thank you so much to everyone involved in the rescue of the eaglet, and to the nest cam viewers who spotted the problem. This eagle would not have survived with the hook and so much fishing line in its digestive tract.
We know little USS11 has a lot of fans, so we will post updates.
And, of course, this is a good time to remind everyone to clean up fishing line and hooks!
Thank you, too, to everyone who has donated in honor of USS11 and to help with the eaglet’s recovery. We couldn’t do what we do without you!
🦅🦅🦅
