DEERFIELD — Raptor rehabilitator Tom Ricardi has been caring for birds of prey for decades. He’s mended and released close to 100, if he had to say.
But the Conway resident’s latest release was a special bird.
Ricardi came to Deerfield on Friday to release the immature bald eagle in memory of Griffin Kearney, a 13-year-old boy who died last week after an off-road utility terrain vehicle crash. Griffin’s stepmother and her son, Caroline and Liam Johnson, and his sister, Ashleigh Hutwelker, came to watch the bird soar from his cage, truly free for the first time since Ricardi had taken him in about a month ago.
Johnson, a Buckland resident, had noticed the bird sitting on her front porch one morning, eating her hosta plant. When she realized it wasn’t able to fly on its own, she called Ricardi.
People in the area know about him, Ricardi said, and frequently tip him off to come collect hurt or starving birds of prey.
“An eagle, eating plants?” he’d thought when he got Johnson’s call. “Oh my gosh, unbelievable.”
The bird was starving, Ricardi said. His breastbone was extremely thin. One more day without Ricardi’s care, and it probably would have died.
It was Johnson’s call that saved the eagle’s life.
“Rainbow trout, quail, you name it,” Ricardi said Friday, walking over to the bird’s cage. “He ate real good.”
He peeked into the cage, opening the door a bit before drawing back, slightly startled.
“He’s standing right in there, looking at me,” he chuckled.
Ricardi has always loved birds of prey, he said. His wife, Annette, said her husband’s fascination with wildlife started when he was 12 years old, delivering newspapers. He saw an injured pigeon and he just dropped all the papers to take care of it.
While the act wasn’t a favorable one with his father, it was a glint at what he would later feel called to do for the majority of his life.
“He loves what he does, oh my God,” Annette said. “It’s a lot of work.”
Ricardi served 38 years as a game warden, still caring for birds of prey on the side, before retiring and opening his own Bird of Prey Rehabilitation Facility. When he started working with bald eagles, they were an endangered species. But Ricardi bred about 20 of them in captivity, raising their numbers again and helping them regain their status as a thriving wildlife community. Now, bald eagles have been taken off the endangered species list.
The bird’s cage was placed toward the edge of one of Deerfield Academy’s athletic fields. Before it, the perfectly trimmed grass extended out, opening up into wood at the edge of the stretch — a straight shot to freedom.
“His wings are still not muscled up yet, so it might take him two or three days before he’s really out there,” Ricardi explained, gesturing with his arms spread out wide, like wings.
“Tommy, the truck is coming back,” Annette warned her husband, warily eyeing a white truck on the other side of the field. Ricardi knelt beside the bird, glanced at a dog nearby — making sure the coast was clear for the eagle to soar away.
When there was nothing in the bird’s path, Ricardi opened the cage gate and tipped it forward, coaxing the eagle out.
“OK, Griffin,” he said. “You’re free.”
There was a pregnant pause as everyone waited for the eagle to open its wings and shoot out of the cage. Five or 10 seemingly long seconds passed, and then, finally, it glided free, wings spread wide, body low to the ground.
The eagle touched down right within the cool confines of the woods.
“Right up into the shade,” Ricardi said. Then he added, “You don’t realize until they open their wings what a magical thing it is.”
The group kept their eyes trained on the woods for a few minutes afterward, watching as someone with a dog walked right near where the eagle had entered the foliage.
Bald eagles are strong predators. They have a grip of more than 400 pounds per square inch.
The bird was on his own now, and strong enough to stay that way.