Rehabilitated bald eagle soars over Smith Mountain Lake
January-February 2026
An eagle soars high over Smith Mountain Lake after rehabilitation at Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center of Roanoke County and the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro. (photos courtesy Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center)
by Jeff Reid, Contributing Writer
A bald eagle returned to the wild in front of a crowd of nearly 100 onlookers last October at Smith Mountain Lake Community Park in Moneta, Va. The eagle, known as patient 25-3592, was released close to where it was first discovered in Franklin County the previous month.
“This majestic eagle came to us after a fierce territorial fight with two younger eagles,” says Chester Leonard, executive director of the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center. “When it arrived, it was utterly exhausted, battered and so weak it could barely lift its head inside the cardboard box it was transported in.”
Leonard’s team immediately went to work. After a few days of much-needed rest and recovery, the eagle slowly but surely began to regain its strength. “After several days of intensive care, it stood tall once again, alert and powerful, and ready to stretch its wings,” Leonard says. “When the time came for a test flight in our 50-foot flight pen, it soared beautifully — a clear sign that its recovery was well underway.”
Eagles require a minimum 100-foot-long flight enclosure to rebuild the endurance and power they need to survive in the wild, so the eagle was transferred to the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro for the final stages of rehabilitation.
“Fortunately, the eagle had no physical injuries like broken bones or lacerations from altercations with other eagles, so it seemed fine physically — but when we ran blood work, we discovered subclinical levels of lead in its system, which is a huge issue for eagles and many other animals in the wild,” says Connor Gillespie, director of outreach for the Wildlife Center of Virginia.
After weeks of flight conditioning and chelation therapy to remove lead from its blood, the eagle was ready to return home. Wildlife Center of Virginia President Meg Gammage-Tucker says the goal is to treat and rehabilitate animals to release them back into the wild. In the center’s 43 years, they have treated more than 100,000 animals.
The eagle received ID number 25-3592 as the 3,592nd patient admitted to the wildlife center in 2025. Now, after a long and incredible journey of healing, this bald eagle is once again soaring over Smith Mountain Lake.