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May 4 was a day like any other, and Deschutes the Eagle was out for his routine training when an errant gust of wind sent the Oregon Zoo's golden eagle higher up into the sky than the half-blind raptor was accustomed to, on an adventure into the hills. Deschutes doesn't have vision in one eye—caused by the car accident that landed him in the care of the zoo—and so his depth perception is super-wonky. When he gets shaken in the air, he looks around and just lands wherever is convenient in that moment. So, that is what he did, only to be promptly mobbed and scared across Highway 26 by a murder of pesky crows.
Into the wooded hills flew the teenage bird—to the dismay of his handlers, who were trying to track Deschutes' radio signal telemetry device. They couldn't find him right away because the radio signal had a tendency to bounce off trees. But Deschutes was a hardy bird. Before he got hit by the car, he had also been shot in the talon by a gun. And now he had survived a run-in with crows!
As it happened, Deschutes' great adventure lasted just 24 hours before he came down from the trees to score food from his handlers. Because he's half blind, he can't really hunt.
Now Deschutes has a fancy new GPS device near his tail feathers, so even if he flies wherever he wants, everybody will always know exactly where he is, forever. The end.
Willamette Week