#7 story of 2014: It was a year of struggles for Decorah's bald eagles

(This story got our vote as the #7 story of 2014):

Raptor Resource Project Director Bob Anderson says one of the three 2014 Decorah bald eaglets has been electrocuted.

Tuesday morning one of the young 2014 male eagles was seen soaring high over the bluff near the Decorah compost site when he attempted to land on the power pole about 1/2 mile from the compost site.  The electricity either entered through its feet and out the wing or vice versa.  The bird's wing was nearly severed.

The dead eagle suffered burns on its wing and feet. 
 
Says Anderson, "We are all very saddened as his flying prowess led us to believe that we would have a long-lived male eagle to compliment the data from our famous D1."

Two Decorah eaglets were electrocuted in 2012.