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It was 8:30 a.m. Berg, a conductor, and Fred Jarrell, an engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railway, were heading east and approaching Minnesota City. Another train was following, and they planned to pull into a siding and let it pass, Berg said.
The eagle, appearing injured, jumped and flapped into some grass and brush. Berg and Jarrell radioed back to the other train and told the engineer to watch for an eagle. This time, it didn't jump out of the way. The engineers thought for sure it must be dead.
They called dispatchers and asked them to notify the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Wildlife technician Brian Pember and a coworker found the eagle and took it to Pet Medical Center in Winona.
Pember said X-rays showed it had a dislocated shoulder and some lacerations but no broken bones. The University of Minnesota's Raptor Center in St. Paul planned to pick it up Thursday night and nurse it back to health, he said. Pember is not sure if a train struck it.
Berg said cell phones, dispatchers and cooperation made the recovery possible, adding that the eagle may have survived by just clearing the second train that passed over it.
Anyone who finds a hawk or owl, dead or alive, should call the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at (507) 452-4232.
