Storm the wedge-tailed eagle returns to skies after feather transplant
March 21, 2025 8:46 PM Subscribe
Storm the wedge-tailed eagle returns to skies after feather transplant.
Aptly named, Storm the wedge-tailed eagle has been released back into the wild more than a year after being injured in wild weather in Victoria.
"imping" brought a flood of memory of reading TH White's The Goshawk [full text PDF] (1951). Gos is found to have a hunger-trace in his feathers from being starvin' at some time when the feathers were developing.
For this reason broken feathers had to be mended by a process called ‘imping’. Most people who have been compelled to read Shakespeare for examinations will be familiar with the word. ‘Imp out our imperfections with your thought’ or ‘imp out our drooping country’s broken wing’. The stub left in the bird was trimmed, a piece of feather corresponding to the part broken off was selected from the store kept handy since last year’s moult, an imping needle sharpened at both ends and triangular in section was dipped in seccotine or brine, and the two parts were joined.
posted by BobTheScientist at 2:51 AM on March 22 [4 favorites]
For this reason broken feathers had to be mended by a process called ‘imping’. Most people who have been compelled to read Shakespeare for examinations will be familiar with the word. ‘Imp out our imperfections with your thought’ or ‘imp out our drooping country’s broken wing’. The stub left in the bird was trimmed, a piece of feather corresponding to the part broken off was selected from the store kept handy since last year’s moult, an imping needle sharpened at both ends and triangular in section was dipped in seccotine or brine, and the two parts were joined.
posted by BobTheScientist at 2:51 AM on March 22 [4 favorites]
They are amazing birds. I've been lucky enough to get to watch a nesting pair locally.
And be watched by them, they certainly keep a close eye on passing observers.
Every now and then I'll see one of them in the air, impossibly high over the suburbs.
posted by nickzoic at 8:57 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
And be watched by them, they certainly keep a close eye on passing observers.
Every now and then I'll see one of them in the air, impossibly high over the suburbs.
posted by nickzoic at 8:57 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
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*I appreciate that the term might make American readers boggle a little- we use that term too but in this case Wedgie is short for wedge tailed eagle.
posted by freethefeet at 9:36 PM on March 21 [2 favorites]