Red Tailed Hawk's Lucky Day

This Red-Tailed Hawk was sitting by the fence alongside the road today and couldn't fly. I phoned my Son-in-Law, returned home, picked up our dog's kennel cage and returned approximately 20 minutes later. My Son-in-Law was in his car right behind me as we pulled up to the spot where the RTHA was discovered. The hawk was nowhere to be found and it was growing dark. We only had about 5 minutes of light remaining to locate the hawk and catch it. My Son-In-Law, Thomas, spotted it running across the road about 50 yards away. The race was on. It made it across the road, across the ditch and across the fence. We got to the spot where it crossed the fence. I jumped the fence and found it sitting in some tall grass with it looking up, daring me to get closer. I tossed a towel over its head, grabbed it by the legs, lifted it up and handed it across the fence to Thomas. We walked back to our vehicles and placed the young RTHA in the kennel cage.

I phoned Suzy at Heckhaven Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Lake Charles, LA ( http://www.heckhaven.com/ ) and brought the injured hawk immediately to her. She showed us where the hawk's wing was broken at the joint. The bone was protruding slightly through the skin. She felt the hawk had been shot and estimated that it had been down for approximately a week due to the calcification of the bone and due to its weight loss.

It is fortunate we have such caring people as Suzy at Heckhaven WRC in Lake Charles whose passion is to care for and to rehabilitate orphaned and injured animals/birds. This hawk was unlucky but is now lucky to have a chance to survive thanks to Suzy. (Left Click to Enlarge Picture)