Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 22, 1995 TAG: 9501230077
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
The bald eagles, talons locked in a mating ritual Friday, barely missed the hood of Heather Malbon's car.
``It looked like a big giant ball of feathers, zigzagging around, and then it went straight down,'' Malbon said. ``It fell right in front of my car, right in the middle of Atlantic Avenue.''
The ball of feathers was the eagles, who frantically tried to disengage their talons.
Malbon, a kitchen designer, stood in the middle of the street to keep traffic away from the birds and used her car phone to call for help. Meanwhile, Bennie Wolfe, a Norfolk insurance adjuster, and John Leavey, a Kansas City, Kan., sightseer, stopped to assist.
``They were just flopping around in the street,'' Wolfe said.
Wolfe got a blanket from his car and the two men covered the eagles and carried them to a median strip. After about 10 minutes, the big birds calmed down.
Wolfe, Leavey and W.C. Pierce, a city animal-control officer, then unlocked the birds' talons.
``Their claws were a little bit bloody, but they didn't appear to be hurt,'' Leavey said.
Pierce said he really didn't believe the call from the dispatcher about two eagles on Atlantic Avenue.
``I thought it was going to be a couple of sea gulls, to be honest,'' he said.
One bird immediately flew toward the south end of the beach. The other flew to a vacant lot. It sat, apparently stunned, for several minutes. Then it flew away, appearing none the worse for the fall.
The two eagles probably were involved in a courtship ritual, said Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge biologist John Gallegos. In the ritual, eagles spar with one another, sometimes locking talons and plummeting. Generally, the birds then unlock their talons and soar back up. Something went wrong this time.
``Maybe a gust of wind got them,'' Gallegos said.
The two eagles could be the same pair that nested last year at the refuge, the first nesting bald eagles in Virginia Beach in 30 years.
``I'd never actually seen a bald eagle before,'' Malbon said, ``but I was amazed at how big they were. They were very beautiful.''
by CNB