Marion always goes out front to check the weather but for some reason today she went out back. To her surprise a very large bird greeted her.
He would open & close his wings but wouldn’t fly. Marion and her husband, Frank, started to make some phone calls. They finally called Midway Vet. Hospital where Noel answered the phone. Noel, who has handled hawks before new this, was more than Marion could handle and gave me a call, and asked me if I could go out to help the elderly woman. Upon arrival he was perched about 1 foot off of the ground in a small tree. When approached he flew to the wooden fence. I got within two feet then he took off again to the neighbors yard and landed in a tree; this time about 12-15 feet in the air. I noticed that he was favoring his right wing. By this time the blackbirds didn’t want him around. After about 8 minutes he took off again to another neighbors tree this time about 15-20 feet up. I knew he was injured but didn’t think he was going to be low enough to catch so I started to tell Marion what to do if he came back down to the ground. Just then we hear a load crack and we thought it was someone who was scaring off the 15-20 blackbirds that were bombing the Red Tail Hawk. Then we saw the Red Tail trying to hang on upside down but couldn’t right himself because of his injured wing. He then started to bounce all the way down the tree hitting all the branches. As I hopped fences, ran around homes and through yards I found him in the corner at the base of the tree he has just fell out of. I reached down and picked him up. I checked him out for more injuries but all I found was the original simple fracture in the right wing and that he was extremely thin. I took this opportunity to show Marion how this he really was.
I loaded the hawk up and headed for Midway Vet. Hospital for some much need fluids for the hawk.
This just shows that a concerned citizen can do for wildlife in distress. Because of Marion & Frank’s desire to help the Hawk out they persisted and found someone who would listen and help them help the hawk.
By Pearl Beamer