PORT TOWNSEND — The North Olympic Peninsula now has a flight pen to aid in rehabilitating raptors.
The flight pen, measuring 100 feet long, 16 feet tall and 36 feet across, is in operation at Discovery Bay Wild Bird Rescue after Jaye Moore, director of the Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center in Sequim, and Cynthia Daily, director of the Discovery Bay rescue, combined forces to move it from Yakima to Port Townsend.
The first eagle to undergo rehabilitation in the flight pen — a male eagle is recovering from lead poisoning— was released into the pen June 10.
The pen will help rehabilitate eagles and other large species such as peregrine falcons, pelicans, osprey, hawks and great-horned owls that are found injured on the Peninsula.
Flight pens are large enclosures used to rebuild and strengthen injured young birds or their abilities to fly before they are released back into the wild.
After regulations changed, the flight pen Moore had — the only one on the Peninsula — no longer met the size required under the permits administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Eagles and bigger birds needing lots of flight time had to be transported off the Peninsula, which meant that birds native to the Olympic Peninsula might be released in unknown territory, Moore said.
The owner of a Yakima raptor center that is closing donated the pen.
Building on years of work together, the two rescue organizations worked together to raise the $15,000-plus needed for the project.
Contributions came from across the Peninsula — from a live music and art event in Port Angeles and an online GoFundMe campaign to a school bake sale.
Daily noted that TPF Services in Yakima donated many hours of labor to take down and reassemble the enclosure, Bottom Line Transportation delivered it at cost and Stewart Excavation donated all the work clearing and excavating the land.
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Alana Linderoth is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach her at 360-683-3311, ext. 55249, or alinderoth@sequimgazette.com.
