WAUKEGAN, Ill. (WLS) – Authorities were called out for a different kind of rescue near Chicago on Sunday after a bald eagle seemed sick and stranded on ice.

Jim Tibensky is a veteran volunteer bird rescuer who has worked with Chicago bird collision monitors for years. However, the call he got on Sunday was a new one for him.

“I’ve rescued hundreds and hundreds of birds, but never a bald eagle,” he said.

He said the rescue was risky.

“The bird, with their talons and beak, could really do some damage, and obviously when a person gets close, they’re going to be terrified,” Tibensky said.

Bird-watchers reached out to the rescue group after they spotted the bald eagle floating on a piece of ice in Waukegan Harbor.

Tibensky said the bird looked miserable.

“I mean it was wet, bedraggled, and when I got there, it didn’t move at all,” he said. “From the time I saw it to the time they got it in the net, I didn’t even see it blink its eyes.”

Tibensky, a longtime kayak racer, used a technique he learned from whitewater rafting to push the ice along with the eagle to shore.

“I got my bow up on the ice a little bit and then just very slowly, hoping not to dislodge the bird, paddled,” he said. “It was on the opposite side of the harbor from where the people were, so I had to paddle it all the way across.”

Then some of the other volunteers stepped in.

“They went and got some nets with very large handles and managed to scoop the bird up,” Tibensky said.

The eagle was taken to a wildlife center, where it’s being nursed back to health.

“He’s eating, sitting up, looking 100% better than yesterday,” Tibensky said.

Rescuers said they believe the eagle may have gotten sick from ingesting poison from its prey.

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