While hiking in the hills this weekend, Deacon came upon an injured hawk. No, Deacon wasn't the cause of the injury. The hawk's wing was damaged and it could only hop a few feet at a time. I don't know how long it had been on the ground, but it was tired and dehydrated. It wouldn't make it past nightfall with all of the coyotes in the area. We knew we needed to try to help it, but weren't sure where to take it. Turns out, on a holiday weekend, no one is available. We called Fish & Game, County Agencies and numerous wildlife and raptor refuge facilities. Finally, we found one lady that answered the phone. She told us how to capture the hawk and the address of her facility. She prepared us for the worst (we wouldn't be able to capture it, it would die on the hour ride to her facility, etc.). When I relayed this news to the kids to prepare them, they told us we had to try. We agreed with them. So, Hubby and the girl hiked back to the property, corralled the dog, got gloves, long sleeve shirts, barn blankets, Deacon's crate and loaded up the Gator and headed back up the hill. While they were gone, the boy and I looked after the hawk and made sure the buzzards or any other animal didn't get to close. After what seemed like an eternity, but was only around a half hour, Hubby and the girl returned. Hiking is much faster when you have a four wheel drive vehicle :). We got suited up and ready. Hubby went above the hawk and the kids and I made a line below him with the blankets outstretched. Luckily for us, the poor thing was to tired to put up much of a fight. On our second try, the kids and I were able to distract him while Hubby dropped a blanket on him from above. After that, we were able to get him in the dog crate with a minimum of effort. We were all elated that he wasn't injured in the capture.
Success ! The hawk, the boy named him Aztec is in Deacon's dog crate and no one was injured! We just had to get him down the hill, to the truck for the hour ride to the wildlife rescue center.
Here is a picture of the poor hawk. He is a large, well fed juvenile, no more than 2.
The boy with the hawk and the lady we brought Aztec to. She was getting ready to examine the hawk. Once she did her examination, she told us it looked like Aztec had a broken wing at the elbow. She was going to make him comfortable and have the vet she works with xray him on Tuesday. She called me Tuesday and let me know that Aztec has a dislocated elbow, the first one she and the vet have ever seen. The vet put the elbow back in place and wrapped it up. I guess they had to look up how to do it on online, as this is the first time they have had to do one. She is going to update me with Aztec's prognosis later in the week. If all goes well, she will keep him through the winter, to make it easier on him and do some physical therapy. When spring comes, she will let us know when he is to be released and bring him up to our property and allow us to help in the release.
| The lady that rescues and rehabilitates the animals took us on a tour of her facility. This is a male Kestrel Hawk. She has a female Kestrel, a bunch of owls, hawks and other birds. She has a Great Horned Owl that is 29 years old. She has had it since it was a baby. The ones that can't be released back into the wild, she keeps and takes them to schools and other places to educate people about them. What an amazing woman! I am so glad there are people like her around. Her facility was so clean that the boy and I didn't sneeze once! We are both very allergic to birds. The kids can't wait until they are old enough to come back and volunteer.
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