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MESA VERDE \u2013 A golden eagle restored to health after being struck by a vehicle on U.S. Highway 160 just west of Mancos on May 2 went home Thursday.<\/p>\n
Scott, named after Scott Gregersen, who found the 4-year-old male golden and pulled him to safety, exploded out of a cardboard box when it was opened at the Mancos Overlook at an elevation of 7,800 feet.<\/p>\n
He headed straight for higher terrain to the west and found refuge in the rocky mountain face. After resting and getting oriented, he rose above the peaks to ride the thermals.<\/p>\n
Gregersen and Carole Withers, the raptor specialist at Durango Wildlife Rehabilitation, freed Scott, who since the May 2 accident convalesced at Durango Animal Hospital and the \u201chospital\u201d Withers has at her Durango home. While at the animal hospital, veterinarian Chuck Hawman patched his fractured lower beak.<\/p>\n
Withers has rehabilitated raptors for 20 years in Durango and in Hawaii for 20 years before that.<\/p>\n
Gregersen, owner of Cortez-based The Specialist Painting and Log Refinishing, came upon the golden eagle, injured while eating a dead prairie dog on U.S. Highway 160.<\/p>\n
He and another driver blocked the highway with their vehicles while Gregersen wrapped the bird in a tarp and moved him to the side.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was afraid he wouldn\u2019t make it,\u201d Gregersen said. \u201cThere was blood coming out of his mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gregersen drove the eagle west on Highway 160 to Cherry Creek Road and handed him off to Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers.<\/p>\n
Among the crowd seeing Scott off to the wilds were Gregersen\u2019s parents, Carol and Larry Gregersen, and aunt and uncle, Jan and Don Pauly, who are visiting from Minnesota.<\/p>\n
Carol Gregersen said her son, who grew up in Arizona, was an avid collector of snakes, lizards and at one time, a Gila monster.<\/p>\n
Withers said Scott made a quick recovery compared to other raptors she has rehabilitated. He refused dead rats during his first days at the animal hospital and at her home, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut otherwise, he ate like crazy,\u201d Withers said. \u201cHe did so well that there was no reason to keep him.\u201d<\/p>\n
If raptors require longer rehabilitation, Withers houses them in an expansive wire-mesh flight center in the north Animas Valley.<\/p>\n