Catching an Eagle with a Boomerang

I started throwing boomerangs on a regular basis as an Engineering
student on the California State University Campus in Sacramento.  One
of the first books that I purchased on the subject of making
boomerangs was a Dover reprint of the Bernard Mason book about how to
make multibladers.  My first commercial venture was to buy yard
(meter) sticks from a local hardware store, cut the sticks in half and
then make cross stick and pinwheel boomerangs to sell on campus. I
painted these bright colors and added kinetic art that looked cool
spinning in the air. The yard sticks cost only 5 cents and I would
sell the finished cross sticks for $2.

On the last day that I was in Sacramento, after graduation and just
before flying to my first Engineering job in Florida, I went to the
Sacramento City Park to throw my boomerangs. It was a warm day with
almost no wind, so two bladers did not work so well.  I took out some
cross sticks and pinwheels and started throwing them in dead calm.
They worked really well.

After throwing for about an hour, I was really in a groove and was
juggling pinwheels.  All of a sudden, I heard a flapping noise and saw
a large shadow on the ground. Then, the shadow got smaller, darker and
came into focus as a large Golden Eagle landed on the ground about 2
metres away from me, his eyes transfixed on the large pinwheel
boomerang that I held in my hand, still spinning as I held the end of
the central bolt in my fingers. The eagle was hipnotized by the
spinning motion of the pinwheel with a spiral kinetic design and it
was content to just stand there and stare.

Looking off into the distance, I saw several people running toward me.
They were still a half km away and were obviously involved somehow
with this eagle. I also noticed a long leather cord tied to one of the
eagle's legs. I just held the pinwheel bolt in one hand and kept the
pinwheel spinning by hitting the blades with my other hand.  I also
kept my body very still to avoid frightening the eagle away.  After a
couple of minutes, the eagle people arrived and grabbed the tether.

The exhausted zoo keepers explained that the eagle had been born in
the Sacramento Zoo.  They had too many eagles, so they were training
this one to fly and hunt before releasing it and the tether had broken
and the eagle had escaped.  They chased it on foot until they saw the
eagle start circling and then land near me.  They thanked me for
helping them recover their eagle and then left.  This is the only time
I have ever heard of someone catching a raptor with a boomerang and
without any harm to the bird. The Aborigines would be envious.  - Ted
Bailey

Ted Bailey - USA

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