After spending six weeks recovering from a foot injury at the Carolina Raptor Center, the bird was released back into the wild Friday morning.

From a field just off Jordan Lake, the eagle spread its wings and vaulted into the clear, blue sky as dozens of wide-eyed, camera-clad onlookers bade it farewell.

"Don't come back!" yelled handler Ron Clark with a smile after he propelled the bird into the air.

It sure didn't.

In seconds, the male eagle ascended, flirting with a nearby branch before coasting over the lake and disappearing behind a faraway line of trees.

"He was flying free, and it was just beautiful to see," said Gail Abrams, executive director of the Piedmont Wildlife Center, the Chapel Hill-based organization whose staff and volunteers rescued the eagle last month.

The bird -- officially known as Bald Eagle #11,600 -- might have been forever grounded if not for the keen eyes of a fisherman who spotted the raptor in a moment of need.

Jay Childress, 37, of Carthage said he saw a fish-hunting osprey diving into the water between Ebenezer Point and Vista Point at Jordan Lake on June 6. A closer look revealed a bald eagle in the water struggling with his claw hooked into a catfish, the osprey's apparent prey.

Childress pulled up close to scare off the osprey and stayed with the wounded bird for two hours until rescuers from the wildlife center arrived.

They took the terrified animal back to the wildlife center, where the puncture wound on the eagle's left foot was cleaned and bandaged, and the bird was treated for water in his lungs. The eagle then moved to the Carolina Raptor Center near Charlotte, where the rehabilitation staff gave him antibiotics and exercised him daily in cages large enough for short flight.

By Friday, the animal was ready to cruise the skies over Jordan Lake.

The site of his release is home base for flyers of different kind. Model airplane enthusiasts often gather at the same field to fly their radio-controlled craft. A sign there reads, "All flyers must have AMA insurance to fly at this site."

An exception was made -- just this once -- for Bald Eagle #11,600.

(Photojournalist Ethan Hyman contributed to this report.)