Bird Karma Skirts Disaster:
Coming back to Montreal from Vermont on Monday, my girlfriend, Bonnie and I had a wonderful day with great Bird Karma. A Peregrine Falcon, Ospreys, a Loon, a pair of competing Snipe displaying, a pair of Hooded Mergansers feeding next to a dozing Canada Goose and basking turtles, several Wood Ducks in full breeding plummage, Blue-winged Teal and a host of other good stuff. As the sun set we headed to the crossing at the tiny station we use at Alburg VT; I was driving.
Past the border on a farm road with no traffic we were passing a slough where we frequently see ducks and sure enough up flew a pile of Mallards......then another pair. I turned and looked. Bonnie turned her gaze forward a split second before I did and I heard her yell......
No time. I could only get off the gas but not even reach the brake pedal before a sickening THUD followed by a second thud as a large chaotic mass of brown feathers hit the windshield and disappeared over the roof.
Direct hard hit. In the rear view I could see it flapping brokenly on the road on its back and then nothing in the dusky light. I pulled into an upcoming farm driveway. It had been such a good day.......and now this?! Just not right. I was shaken. It got worse.
I thought I'd hit a Mallard, but Bonnie had seen it just before impact - it was a hawk (yep, I'm a bit of a speciesist when it comes to common ducks v uncommon birds of prey). I put my flashers on as a pick-up came the other way and I saw him brake and swerve, then continue. Well there was nothing for it but to do the decent thing and make sure the poor creature wasn't suffering. I turned around under the curious gaze of a complacent Golden Retriever in the farmyard, and headed back.
Then Karma started to reassert herself.
As we approached watching for the body we were very surprised to see it standing up in the middle of the road! Very not dead. I put the flashers on again and rummaged around for something to drape and hood the potentially dangerous animal with - we had no box. The plan was to approach, and if it was able to fly off, then that would be that. However, that was not expected and an injured hawk is usually a dead hawk if left in the wild.
Looking it over as I approached I guessed it to be a female Coopers Hawk by the size and plummage. She looked at me and opened her beak, but stayed put with the left wing held a bit down and some red showing. We figured she needed to be caught. If there is any significant wing injury to an Accipiter like a Coopers, they will be at risk as they catch their prey on the wing and need to be able to fly superbly, not just well. I tossed the jacket over her head and pinned her wings to her body. To avoid having to effect a dangerous transfer, Bonnie took over driving as I held the hot bundle of of potentially ferocious feathers in my lap.
She started to recover a bit as we drove, and in the struggles got a talon lightly hooked in my left hand; I held firm - you CANNOT let a wild hawk loose in your moving car without a risk of making the obits next morning. We stopped at the first grocery we passed and got a small box that had no top. That was an improvement and I was able to make sure she wasn't overheating with the stress (very hot day; 90 and still in the high '70's during this episode and the bird was audibly panting). We had to pick up some deliveries for Bonnie's store at her broker's office - a short detour - and happily the woman there had a better box and had also in years past rescued a hawk - a Red-tail - so was sympathetic to our plight. The bird had been quiet after the grocery and we weren't sure how well she was doing. During the box transfer in the broker's office we got an indication. She made a break for it. The split second mental image of this ill-tempered beak and talons combo tearing around the office seemed to do something for my reflexes and I grabbed her quick as a wink. As a reward I got a talon in my right middle knuckle.
Bonnie's ex is a vet and she worked in the veterinary surgery for years; rehab'd wild animals often, (especially squirrels) and still has contacts in the field, so she got on the phone. We delivered the hawk to Judy, a rehab volunteer in Montreal.
Judy called yesterday morning and told me we could release her. Bonnie and I drove the bird back to where we'd caught her in case she was on a nest. I tore a corner out of the box, hoping that without enough room for a wing beat, she would stay put for long enough to get at least some photos. It was windy and lightly raining so we made it quick. Wanted her to have time to hunt and get to shelter before the weather worsened.
After some photos, I pulled back the rest of the box top and she exploded out into a steep climb, then dove and swooped around in a big arc (right over the police car that had stopped to see what we were up to), coming back to land in a tree a short way to our left. We walked over and took some more shots, then she took off again alighting in another tree a bit further off. Then she did another high fast climb followed by a swooping undulating descent and circled out in front of us, scaring up a bunch of pigeons. I swear she looked ecstatic. No problem with her flying; it looked like pure joy. She buzzed back and forth in front of us for a bit and then disappeared into the background of fields and forest.
What makes this a bit more interesting (for me anyway) is that I've rescued one other hawk. It was almost exactly 20 years ago, in May 1989 and the same species; a juvenile female Coopers Hawk that hit my studio window on 46th St and 5th Avenue in NY. Got the bird to a rehab center in Connecticut and they let me do the release about a week later when she was strong enough.
Coming back to Montreal from Vermont on Monday, my girlfriend, Bonnie and I had a wonderful day with great Bird Karma. A Peregrine Falcon, Ospreys, a Loon, a pair of competing Snipe displaying, a pair of Hooded Mergansers feeding next to a dozing Canada Goose and basking turtles, several Wood Ducks in full breeding plummage, Blue-winged Teal and a host of other good stuff. As the sun set we headed to the crossing at the tiny station we use at Alburg VT; I was driving.
Past the border on a farm road with no traffic we were passing a slough where we frequently see ducks and sure enough up flew a pile of Mallards......then another pair. I turned and looked. Bonnie turned her gaze forward a split second before I did and I heard her yell......
No time. I could only get off the gas but not even reach the brake pedal before a sickening THUD followed by a second thud as a large chaotic mass of brown feathers hit the windshield and disappeared over the roof.
Direct hard hit. In the rear view I could see it flapping brokenly on the road on its back and then nothing in the dusky light. I pulled into an upcoming farm driveway. It had been such a good day.......and now this?! Just not right. I was shaken. It got worse.
I thought I'd hit a Mallard, but Bonnie had seen it just before impact - it was a hawk (yep, I'm a bit of a speciesist when it comes to common ducks v uncommon birds of prey). I put my flashers on as a pick-up came the other way and I saw him brake and swerve, then continue. Well there was nothing for it but to do the decent thing and make sure the poor creature wasn't suffering. I turned around under the curious gaze of a complacent Golden Retriever in the farmyard, and headed back.
Then Karma started to reassert herself.
As we approached watching for the body we were very surprised to see it standing up in the middle of the road! Very not dead. I put the flashers on again and rummaged around for something to drape and hood the potentially dangerous animal with - we had no box. The plan was to approach, and if it was able to fly off, then that would be that. However, that was not expected and an injured hawk is usually a dead hawk if left in the wild.
Looking it over as I approached I guessed it to be a female Coopers Hawk by the size and plummage. She looked at me and opened her beak, but stayed put with the left wing held a bit down and some red showing. We figured she needed to be caught. If there is any significant wing injury to an Accipiter like a Coopers, they will be at risk as they catch their prey on the wing and need to be able to fly superbly, not just well. I tossed the jacket over her head and pinned her wings to her body. To avoid having to effect a dangerous transfer, Bonnie took over driving as I held the hot bundle of of potentially ferocious feathers in my lap.
She started to recover a bit as we drove, and in the struggles got a talon lightly hooked in my left hand; I held firm - you CANNOT let a wild hawk loose in your moving car without a risk of making the obits next morning. We stopped at the first grocery we passed and got a small box that had no top. That was an improvement and I was able to make sure she wasn't overheating with the stress (very hot day; 90 and still in the high '70's during this episode and the bird was audibly panting). We had to pick up some deliveries for Bonnie's store at her broker's office - a short detour - and happily the woman there had a better box and had also in years past rescued a hawk - a Red-tail - so was sympathetic to our plight. The bird had been quiet after the grocery and we weren't sure how well she was doing. During the box transfer in the broker's office we got an indication. She made a break for it. The split second mental image of this ill-tempered beak and talons combo tearing around the office seemed to do something for my reflexes and I grabbed her quick as a wink. As a reward I got a talon in my right middle knuckle.
Bonnie's ex is a vet and she worked in the veterinary surgery for years; rehab'd wild animals often, (especially squirrels) and still has contacts in the field, so she got on the phone. We delivered the hawk to Judy, a rehab volunteer in Montreal.
Judy called yesterday morning and told me we could release her. Bonnie and I drove the bird back to where we'd caught her in case she was on a nest. I tore a corner out of the box, hoping that without enough room for a wing beat, she would stay put for long enough to get at least some photos. It was windy and lightly raining so we made it quick. Wanted her to have time to hunt and get to shelter before the weather worsened.
After some photos, I pulled back the rest of the box top and she exploded out into a steep climb, then dove and swooped around in a big arc (right over the police car that had stopped to see what we were up to), coming back to land in a tree a short way to our left. We walked over and took some more shots, then she took off again alighting in another tree a bit further off. Then she did another high fast climb followed by a swooping undulating descent and circled out in front of us, scaring up a bunch of pigeons. I swear she looked ecstatic. No problem with her flying; it looked like pure joy. She buzzed back and forth in front of us for a bit and then disappeared into the background of fields and forest.
What makes this a bit more interesting (for me anyway) is that I've rescued one other hawk. It was almost exactly 20 years ago, in May 1989 and the same species; a juvenile female Coopers Hawk that hit my studio window on 46th St and 5th Avenue in NY. Got the bird to a rehab center in Connecticut and they let me do the release about a week later when she was strong enough.
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