He gone! Rehabbed eagle released back into wild after being found near death earlier this month

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A bald eagle that was found near death two weeks ago in a Michigan City was released Thursday near the spot where he was found.

A couple was jogging and discovered the bird looking pretty bad and laying in a water-filled ditch. It may have been clipped by a vehicle, says Nicole Harmon of Humane Indiana Wildlife Rescue, which took in the animal.

She did not think it would survive because the eagle couldn’t stand or keep its eyes open and had shallow breathing. But he came back from the brink surprisingly quickly, she said.

She said he made eye contact and became “mad to be there.”

“That’s exactly what you want to see from a patient,” Harmon said.

One of the people who found the eagle, Janine Weber, opened the crate to set the eagle free at Reynolds Creek Gamebird Habitat. She took her son, Cole, out of school for the event. Everyone watched silently as the bird fly away over some trees.

“That blows you away, especially when you see the wings out. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Just majestic,” Weber told WBBM Newsradio.

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