Early Monday morning, one of the pair of bald eagles nesting near the Aspen Glen subdivision in the Roaring Fork Valley was hit by a car on Highway 82. The raptor suffered a broken wing and multiple fractures. It was transported to the Pauline S. Schneegas Wildlife Foundation, a wild animal rehabilitation center near Silt, where it was ultimately euthanized.
Local ecologist Delia Malone, who has been monitoring the Aspen Glen Bald Eagle Buffer Zone said it is uncertain if this was a male or female, but its death leaves only one parent to feed and protect three eaglets in the nest. “The [eaglets] at this point in time can't protect themselves,” she said. “Their survival is dependent on one parent to protect them and one parent to go out and forage and provide food. And so now, it's going to be one parent that has to do both.”
Malone and Aspen Glen resident Sibel Tekce recently updated the Garfield County Commissioners about a two-year study of the buffer zone, which they said allowed the bald eagles and other wildlife to flourish.
It is unknown why the eagle was so close to the road on Monday. Malone said she observed a carcass that day in the median near where the bird was killed, which could have attracted the eagle. “I mourn the passing of this eagle, " she said. “But I mourn, as much, the loss of the beauty of thousands of years of evolution.” She added that she and the Aspen Glen team will be keeping a closer eye on the eagle’s nest to make sure the eaglets survive.
