This American bald eagle flew away after being freed from the branch its wing was impaled on.

SVENSEN ISLAND — An eagle two men helped free by shooting the branch it was caught on is likely just fine.

Last week, the The Daily Astorian published a story about how Nov. 26 Ocean Park, Wash., resident and photographer Robert Matthews saw a bald eagle caught in a forking tree branch near Svensen Island.

The eagle had somehow hooked its wing over a branch and couldn’t pull itself over the branch or slide off. Matthews hurried back up the road and talked to a man he had seen earlier walking a dog in the area. The man got his son’s shotgun, planning to shoot at the branch, hope to break it and free the eagle.

The man emptied an entire box of ammunition but without success. The branch held and the eagle remained trapped. The man left. As Matthews turned away disappointed he decided to take one more photograph. He turned back only to see a broken branch and no eagle anywhere.

At the time the story was published, it wasn’t clear if the eagle had simply slipped off and flown away or if it had seriously injured itself. According to the Wildlife Center of the North Coast in Astoria, an eagle in that kind of situation could have easily pulled a joint or even broken its wing in the struggle to free itself or in the fall after. The center successfully rehabilitates numerous birds each year, however, an eagle with a pulled joint wouldn’t fly again.

But, in an email to the newspaper Dec. 11, the wife of the man who thought to use a gun to break the branch said that as Matthews turned back to take a photo, her husband was trying to enlist the help of a passing duck hunter. While they talked, he and the hunter saw the tree limb collapse and the eagle slip free.

“It balanced itself and flew free out over the channel,” said the man, who added that he preferred to continue to be known as “the man with the dog.” “He wished he was a better shot and wouldn’t have had to use up every last one of his shells,” his wife wrote, relaying his comments to the newspaper via email. “He thought it hadn’t worked but when he saw the eagle slide down and lift off, he was elated, thankful.”

Workers at the Wildlife Center told the newspaper last week that if the men had seen the eagle fly away, the eagle was probably just fine.

The eagle flew toward Russian Island. Days later, one of the man’s friends told him that another friend had been out at Russian Island and had come across a bald eagle with a hurt wing. The friend wrapped it in his coat and took it to the Wildlife Center of the North Coast.

There is no way to know if it is the same eagle Matthews and the man with the dog had helped free in November. Regardless, they have heard this eagle is doing well. If it is fully rehabilitated, it will be released close to where it was found.