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It took a while, but she finally found the spot – a tree marked with white medical gauze. About 20 feet away was an injured bird sitting on the ground.

“I could tell that it was far too large to be a hawk,” Bookbinder said. She used to work at a nature center and quickly recognized that the bird was a bald eagle.

It was “very, very still and quiet,” she said, and it was “covered in flies.”

Bookbinder called her boss, Matt Anderson, and told him about the eagle. She also texted him a photo of the bird. But from the other end of the line came an order: She was not to call the wildlife rehabilitation center, nor was she to transport it to a wildlife veterinarian.

“I pointed out that this was a massive violation of the Scout law,” Bookbinder said. “Part of the Scout law is to be thoughtful and to be kind, and this was neither.

“I have never been so angry that I cried,” she said. “At that point, I just thought, ‘OK, I’m just going to do it anyway.’ ”

Part of the Scout law is to be thoughtful and to be kind, and this was neither.

Meanwhile, she had been in touch with her brother, who was back at the camp. She told him to gather materials – towels, a spray bottle, a large Tupperware container – so that they could capture the eagle and take it a rehabilitation center.

She also called the emergency after-hours phone number of the Wildlife Center of Virginia. She was told that if she could safely capture the eagle, she should do so and bring it to the center, located about 45 miles away.

Soon, her brother arrived on the trail and the two worked together to capture the bird. As they slowly inched toward the eagle, it was clear it couldn’t flap its wings or make alarm calls. She grabbed it from behind, wrapped it in towels, and carefully placed it into the large plastic tub.