A wildlife rescue group in Rogers County is one step closer to releasing a bald eagle back into the wild.
Wild Heart Ranch rescued a bald eagle back in July after it was hit by a car. At the time volunteers worried that it would not be able to fly again because of an injury to its wing.
The rescue group named the eagle Scoop and worked to nurse the bird back to health. On Friday volunteers got their first chance to see how well the wing healed when they let Scoop stretch his wings while attached to a tether.
"He hit the ground then bounced back up and took off, then he banked," Annette King said. "That tells me that that wing is healed, and he's got control over it. Now I want to see some altitude."
Wild Heart Ranch plans to fly Scoop a few more times before the doctors give the group approval to release him back to the wild. King expects that to happen soon.
"His recovery has gone textbook," she said, "so I don't foresee more than another week to 10 days of this. Now of course, that's going to be up to his doctors to make that determination."
